HORACE  MANN 


Bii 


HORACE   MANN 


PIONEERS    IN    EDUCATION 


HORACE  MANN 

AND   THE    PUBLIC    SCHOOL   IN  THE 
UNITED   STATES 


BY 


GABRIEL  COMPAYRE 

CORRESPONDENT  OF  THE  INSTITUTE  ;  DIRECTOR  OF  THE  ACADEMY 

OF  LYONS;    AUTHOR  OF   "PSYCHOLOGY  APPLIED   TO 

EDUCATION,"  "LECTURES  ON  PEDAGOGY," 

UA  HISTORY  OF  PEDAGOGY,"  ETC. 


TRANSLATED  BY 
MARY   D.   FROST 


O.-  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


IRK 

THOMAS  Y.   CROWELL  &  CO. 
PUBLISHERS 


IVi  2,  £7 


COPTBIGHT,  190T, 

BY  THOMAS  Y.   CEOWELL  &  COMPANY. 
PUBLISHED,  SEPTEMBEB,  1907. 


CONTENTS  AND  SUMMARY 

PREFACE      3 

PREAMBLE 7 

|  I.  The  life  of  Horace  Mann  previous  to  1837.  —  His 
origin.  —  Poor  and  laborious  childhood.  —  Preco- 
cious taste  for  reading.  —  The  little  library  founded 
by  Franklin.  —  The  village  school.  —  Mann  revolts 
from  the  gloomy  teachings  of  Calvinism.  —  Keen 
sentiment  for  the  beauties  of  nature.  —  Family 
affections.  —  His  tenderness  for  his  mother.  — 
His  devotion  to  his  sister.  —  His  first  marriage.  — 
Despair  caused  by  the  loss  of  his  wife.  —  His  friend- 
ships. —  Mann  as  a  lawyer.  —  Mann  as  member  of 
Congress,  senator,  politician.  —  His  work  for  the 
amelioration  of  the  treatment  of  the  blind.  —  His 
campaign  against  intemperance.  —  Brilliancy  of  his 
public  position  and  sadness  of  his  private  life  .  .  9 
\  II.  Horace  Mann,  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education  of 
Boston  (1837-1848).  — Formation  of  the  Board  of 
Education.  —  Why  Mann  was  chosen  secretary  of 
the  Board.  —  His  devotion  to  humanity  and  his 
love  of  children.  —  His  faith  in  education.  — 
Limited  powers  of  the  Board  and  of  its  secretary.  — 
No  effective  authority.  —  No  means  of  action  ex- 
cept appeal  to  public  opinion.  —  From  the  first  day 
Mann  sets  to  work.  —  Conventions.  —  First  lecture 
tour.  —  Crusade  against  ignorance.  —  Not  always 
an  audience  at  his  lectures.  —  The  common  school 
journal.  —  Mann  acts  by  speech  and  pen.  —  The 
iii 


165082 


iv  CONTENTS  AND  SUMMARY 

twelve  annual  reports.  —  Character  of  these  reports, 
genuine  scholastic  manifestoes.  —  Their  historical 
interest.  —  Their  pedagogic  value.  —  Tables  show- 
ing the  condition  of  Massachusett  schools  in  1837.  — 
Analyses  of  the  twelve  reports.  —  How  Mann  pre- 
pared them.  —  Questions  addressed  to  competent 
persons.  —  The  seventh  report.  —  Account  of  Euro- 
pean trip.  —  Favorable  impression  made  upon  Mann 
by  German  schools.  —  Somewhat  excessive  eulogy 
of  German  teachers.  —  Severe  judgment  on  France. 
—  Violent  opposition  encountered  by  Mann  in  his 
own  country.  — iT^he  non-sectarian  school  attacked 
by  the  American  sectaries,  as  the  French  lay  school 
was  to  be  later.  —  Conflict  with  the  Boston  school- 
masters. —  Reform  of  Boston  schools.  —  Founda- 
tion of  normal  schools.  —  Necessity  for  professional 
training  of  teachers.  —  Pierce,  master  of  the  Lexing- 
ton Normal  School.  —  School  libraries.  —  Impor- 
tance of  good  books.  —  Other  pedagogical  innova- 
tions by  Mann.  —  Lectures  to  teachers.  —  Graduated 
tables  of  the  districts.  —  Mann's  disinterestedness, 
his  pecuniary  sacrifices.  —  Results  of  his  twelve 
years  of  labor.  —  He  is  elected  representative  from 
Massachusetts  to  the  Congress  at  Washington.  — 

Resigns  his  secretaryship 

III.  Mann's  philosophy  and  general  ideas.  —  No  per- 
sonal philosophy.  —  Philosophical  system  borrowed 
from  George  Combe.  —  The  author  of  The  Constitu- 
tion of  Man.  —  What  attracted  Mann  in  Combe's 
theories.  —  The  reasons  for  his  being  a  phrenologist. 
— The  laws  of  the  development  of  the  mind,  symme- 
try, and  activity. — Mann's  spirituality. — A  strain  of 
mysticism.  —  A  Puritan  without  theology.  —  Faith 
in  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  —  Moral  psychology 
of  Mann.  —  The  higher  faculties,  conscience  and  the 


CONTENTS   AND  SUMMARY  v 

feeling  of  responsibility.  —  Intellect  subordinated 
to  feeling.  —  Great  ideas  come  from  the  heart.  — 
Intellectual  culture  subordinated  to  moral  culture.  — 
Utilitarian  tendencies.  —  Universal  education  a  * 
social  debt.  —  Mann's  hesitation  in  regard  to  ob- 
ligatory school  attendance.  —  His  eloquence.  — 
Qualities  and  defects  of  his  style.  —  His  political 
views.  —  The  honest  man  and  good  citizen.  —  The 
perils  of  unenlightened  universal  suffrage.  —  Without 
education  no  safety 72 

IV.  Horace  Mann,  president  of  Antioch  College   (1853- 

1859).  —  Mann  elected  governor  of  Massachusetts. 

—  He  prefers  to  assume  the  direction  of  Antioch 
College  in  Ohio.  —  His  enthusiasm  for  this  new  work. 

—  Dreams    and    reality.  —  Material    difficulties.  — 
Miserable  accommodations.  —  Financial  embarrass- 
ment. —  Hostility  of  those  about  him.  —  His  cour- 
age triumphs  over  all  obstacles.  —  Organization  of 
studies.  —  Selection  of  students.  —  Moral  qualities 
preferred  to  intellectual  gifts.  —  Innovations  in  pro- 
gramme  and  methods  of    instruction.  —  Principles 
of    discipline.  —  Punishments    to    be    avoided.  — 
Pupils  governed  by  appealing  to  their  conscience.  — 
Liberal  regime.  —  Mann's  moral  authority.  —  What 
he  had  retained  of  the  Puritanism  of  his  ancestors.  — 
His  campaign  against  tobacco  and  alcoholic  liquors. 

V—  Experiment  in  coeducation.  —  Failing  health.  — 
Financial  ruin  of  the  college.  —  Mann's  final  efforts. 
-His  death 95 

V.  Mann's  influence  and  the  Spread  of  his  Work.  —  What 

would  distress  Mann,  were  he  to  return  to  this  world, 
in  the  present  conditions. — What  would  rejoice  him, 
on  the  other  hand.  —  Progress  of  education  in 
United  States.  —  It  has  not  ceased  to  conform  to 
Mann's  ideas.  —  The  Boston  Board  of  Education 


vi  CONTENTS  AND  SUMMARY 

led  to  the  creation  of  a  central  organ  of  school  ad- 
ministration in  all  the  States.  —  That  progress  has 
advanced  slowly.  —  Present  statistics  of  schools  in 
the  United  States.  —  Increase  of  high  schools.  — 
Influence  of  Mann  over  his  contemporaries.  —  His 
greatest  disciple,  Henry  Barnard.  —  That  France 
has  been  inspired  by  the  ideas  and  example  of  Mann. 
—  Horace  Mann  and  Felix  Pe"caut  .  .  .  123 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 133 


PEEFACE 

"WITHOUT  any  question/'  Americans  say,  "the 
noblest  figure  in  the  history  of  education  in  our 
country  is  that  of  Horace  Mann."  He  owes  this 
preeminence,  not  only  to  the  brilliancy  of  his 
talents  and  the  authority  of  his  genius,  but  to  the 
circumstances,  the  surroundings,  in  which  his  talents 
and  genius  were  called  upon  to  play  their  part. 
He  may  be  said  to  have  been  "the  right  man  in 
the  right  place"  and  we  must  add,  also,  "at  the 
right  time." 

•  The  admiration  so  justly  awarded  to  Mann  by 
his  countrymen  has  not  been  denied  him  abroad. 
Felix  Pecaut,  to  speak  of  no  one  else,  has  said  of 
him:  "I  wish  that  Mann's  biography  might  be 
placed  in  the  hands,  not  only  of  all  professors,  but 
of  all  their  pupils." 

It  is  this  biography  which  we  offer  here,  in  its 
essential  features:  the  biography  of  a  man  admi- 
rable in  many  ways,  for  candor  and  purity  of  soul, 
for  nobility  of  character,  for  his  devotion  to  the 
cause  of  education  and  progress,  for  his  kindness 

3 


4  PREFACE 

of  heart  no  less  than  for  the  wealth  of  a  marvel- 
lous intelligence,  and,  above  all,  for  the  extent  of 
his  activities  and  the  greatness  of  his  scholastic 
work. 

It  is  especially  as  a  man  of  action  that  Mann 
was  incomparable.  Undoubtedly,  it  was  his  good 
fortune  to  apgear  at.  the  right  moment,  just  as 
a  widespread  movement  was  abroad,  impelling 
all  good  citizens  to  forward  the  cause  of  popular 
education.  ~^  "But  to  "him  belongs  the  credit  of 
accelerating  this-jnQYemejtit  and  of  leading  it  with 
the  ardor  and  enthusiasm  of  an  apostle  —  one  not 
merely  devoted  to  his  work,  but  passionately  ab- 
sorbed in  it.  He  was  the  eloquent  orator  of  the 
cause  of  popular  education,  its  preacher  and  trib- 
une, more  concerned,  moreover,  with  the  moral  con- 
duct of  men  than  with  pure  science  or  theoretic 
speculation. 

"Call  the  astronomer  from  the  heights  of  heaven," 
he  cried  to  his  countrymen;  "bring  the  geologist 
from  the  depths  of  the  earth;  silence  all  political 
and  religious  controversies ;  assemble  all  the  wisdom, 
talent,  and  authority  that  you  possess,  and  then 
begin  to  teach  the  people." 

But  he  did  not  confine  himself  to  arousing  and 
enlightening  public  opinion  by  his  ardent  preach- 
ing, to  conquering  and  inspiring  it  by  his  faith 


PREFACE  5 

in  progress  and  humanity;  he  was  also  a  skilful 
organizer,  a  practical  innovator,  an  indefatigable 
laborer  for  the  reform  of  education  in  his  country; 
and  if  he  did  not  aspire  to  build  up  a  theory,  a 
philosophy  of  education,  he  did  better  still, — he 
created  a  school  system.  In  that  respect  he  was 
a  great  pedagogical  founder.  Mann  died  fifty 
years  ago,  but  his  spirit  is  still  alive  and  present 
in  the  public  schools  of  the  United  States.  And 
not  in  America  only,  but^in  Europe,  an_djBSgecjally 
in  France,  sch olasti c  .-Jnstitlitio^._.haYeLJbeen  in- 
spired^ his  thought^  The  recent  history  of  the 
establishment  of  French  lay  schools  recalls  in  more 
than  one  respect  the  organization  of  the  American 
common  school  as  Mann  undertook  and  carried 
it  into  execution  a  half  century  ago.  And  this 
resemblance,  this  community  of  views  upon  educa- 
tion between  the  two  republics,  the  younger  of 
which  has  followed,  somewhat  tardily,  perhaps, 
but  with  equal  ardor,  in  the  steps  of  her  great 
sister,  are  sufficient  to  revive  our  interest  in  a  study 
of  the  great  American  educator. 

Mann  did  not  work  for  his  owrn  country  alone, 
he  labored  for  humanity,  and,  above  all,  for  repub- 
lican humanity.  He  was  working  for  republican 
principles  when  he  wrote  his  great  address  on 
"The  Necessity  for  Education  in  a  Republic," 


6  PREFACE 

when  he  said,  "In  a  republic,  ignorance  is  a  crime." 
He  wrought  for  humanity,  —  he  who,  a  few  days 
before  his  death,  addressed  to  his  beloved  pupils 
these  last  words,  "  Be  ashamed  to  die  before  you 
have  won  some  victory  for  humanity." 


HOEACE  MANN 

THE  true  life  of  Horace  Mann,  the  life  of  an 
apostle  of  popular  education,  began  in  1837,  when 
he  was  already  forty  years  of  age.  Appointed 
at  that  date  secretary  of  the  Boston  Board  of 
Education,  to  reorganize  the  school  system  of 
the  State  of  Massachusetts,  he  entered  upon  his 
new  functions  with  extraordinary  ardor  and  in- 
tense energy.  "Life,"  he  said,  "assumes  a  value 
in  my  eyes  which  I  never  before  suspected."  Up 
to  this  time  he  had  been  a  gifted  lawyer  and  a  man 
of  influence  in  politics,  he  was  now  to  become 
an  educator.  After  pleading  before  the  bar  of 
his  country  in  hundreds  of  private  causes,  nearly 
all  of  which  he  won,  he  was  about  to  take  in  hand 
the  great  cause  of  humanity  at  large,  —  of  universal 
education.  The  public  school  became  his  idol; 
"the  greatest  discovery,"  he  called  it,  "ever  made 
by  man."  During  the  twelve  years  that  he  held 
this  position,  he  multiplied  speeches  and  pam- 
phlets; he  expended  his  strength  in  conventions 
and  newspaper  work.  In  answer  to  his  appeals 

7 


8  HORACE   MANN 

schools  sprang  into  being  where  there  had  been 
none  before,  and  those  already  existing  set  about 
reforming  their  methods;  school  committees  re- 
vived their  lukewarm  zeal;  a  generous  ardor  took 
possession  of  his  countrymen,  kindling  their  blood 
and  arousing  them  from  their  inertia.  It  was, 
in  short,  a  renaissance,  a  resurrection,  a  revival 
of  the  American  public  school.  It  was  even  more 
than  this,  —  it  was  an  actual  creation,  a  new  and 
almost  final  reorganization  of  the  system  of  public 
education,  as  the  United  States  has  maintained 
and  developed  it,  for  over  half  a  century. 

But  before  showing  what  Horace  Mann  accom- 
plished, we  must  relate  briefly  how  he  was  fitted 
by  education  and  character  for  this  great  work. 


THE  LIFE  OF  HORACE  MANN  PREVIOUS  TO  1837 

NOTHING  in  Mann's  family  and  antecedents, 
nor  in  his  childhood  and  youth,  gives  promise  of 
the  high  destiny  to  which  he  was  called,  —  that  of 
a  hero  of  education;  nothing,  unless  it  be  a  pre- 
cocious will  power  and  a  feverish  ardor  for  knowl- 
edge. Born  on  a  farm  in  Norfolk  County  on  the 
4th  of  May,  1796,  twenty  years  after  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  of  the  United  States,  here 
he  lived  until  his  twentieth  year,  engaged  in  the 
labors  of  the  farm.  "My  childhood  was  not  a  happy 
one,"  he  often  said  later.  The  death  of  his  father 
in  1809,  when  he  was  only  thirteen  years  old,  im- 
poverished this  humble  household  still  more.  He 
was  obliged  to  work  harder  than  ever  to  support 
the  family, — a  task  in  which  his  mother  set  him 
the  example.  "She  was,"  we  are  told,  "one  of 
those  sober,  sensible,  energetic  New  England  women 
who  bring  to  the  dull,  ceaseless  routine  of  domestic 
drudgery  the  will  and  courage  of  actual  heroines." 

Horace  Mann  educated  himself  by  his  own  per- 

9 


10  HORACE  MANN 

sonal  efforts  amid  the  solitude  of  the  country 
and  by  daily  intercourse  with  nature.  His  taste 
for  reading  developed  early,  and  a  fortunate  cir- 
cumstance contributed  to  it.  The  little  town 
of  Franklin,  one  of  those  raw,  newly  built  American 
towns  which  seem  to  have  sprung  from  the  soil 
like  mushrooms,  poor  as  it  was  in  resources  of  every 
kind,  possessed  the  embryo  of  a  library,  which  it 
owed  to  the  generosity  of  the  great  American  for 
whom  it  was  named.  Franklin  has  somewhere 
related  that  he  first  thought  of  presenting  a  bell 
as  an  appropriate  godfather's  gift  to  the  new- 
born hamlet.  He  changed  his  mind,  however,  on 
reflecting  that  the  people  of  that  region,  as  he 
knew  them,  preferred  sense  to  sound,  and  he  accord- 
ingly sent  them  a  collection  of  books. 

Mann  profited  by  this  decision;  on  such  trifles 
do  human  affairs  depend.  If  Franklin  had  been 
a  less  judicious  benefactor  of  the  town  to  which 
he  stood  sponsor,  Mann's  lot  might  have  turned 
out  quite  differently.  He  might  have  vegetated, 
ignorant  and  obscure,  in  his  native  village  and 
never  have  been  able  to  say  in  later  life:  "If  it 
were  in  my  power,  I  would  scatter  books  broadcast 
over  the  land,  as  the  sower  scatters  grain  in  the 
furrows  of  the  field."  The  supply  of  books  pre- 
sented by  Franklin,  chiefly  works  of  theology  and 


HORACE  MANN  11 

ancient  history,  were,  it  is  true,  soon  exhausted, 
but  not  before  they  had  kindled  the  sacred  firo 
in  Mann's  soul.  In  order  to  purchase  others,  the 
boy  spent  the  small  sums  which  he  could  earn 
with  his  own  hands  by  weaving  straw  during  the 
long  winter  evenings  and  selling  his  basket  work. 
It  was  his  solitary  reading  which  turned  the  little 
rustic  into  a  well-informed  youth.  The  town- 
ship of  Franklin  boasted,  indeed,  a  school,  which 
Mann  attended  when  he  could  be  spared  from 
the  work  of  the  farm;  that  is  to  say,  about  eight 
or  ten  weeks  of  the  year.  But  what  a  school ! 
Mere  mechanical  teaching  of  the  three  B/s,  a  simple 
exercise  of  memory,  without  the  slightest  appeal 
to  the  intelligence;  a  school,  in  short,  which 
awaited,  like  so  many  others,  the  reforms  which 
Mann  was  to  introduce  at  a  later  day. 

The  village  church,  in  the  quality  of  its  religious 
instruction,  was  worth  even  less  than  the  school. 
It  was  conducted  by  a  fanatical  preacher,  Dr. 
Evans,  an  extra-  or  hyper-Calvinist,  as  Mann  called 
him,  whose  only  aim  was  to  terrorize  his  flock 
by  dismal  pictures  of  future  punishment  in  the 
next  world.  The  youthful  Mann,  with  the  docility 
of  his  childish  imagination,  trembled  and  shud- 
dered like  the  rest  under  these  terrifying  threats 
of  eternal  perdition.  But  an  event  was  to  occur, 


12  HORACE  MANN 

which  completely  revolutionized  his  ideas.  At 
the  age  of  twelve  he  lost  a  brother  whom  he  tenderly 
loved,  and  in  the  anguish  of  his  grief  the  boy 
learned  to  reflect.  Guided  by  his  heart,  sustained 
by  his  growing  reason,  he  was  seized  by  an  instinct 
of  rebellion;  he  said  to  himself  that  it  was  not 
possible  that  his  beloved  brother  should  have  to 
endure  eternal  punishment  in  another  world;  that 
the  God  he  worshipped  was  not  a  monster  of  cruelty. 
He  had  reached  a  moment  of  moral  crisis,  almost 
such  a  night  as  Jauffray  describes.  "I  remember, 
as  if  it  were  yesterday,"  he  said  long  after,  "the 
day,  the  hour,  the  place,  the  circumstances,  in 
which  I  broke  the  chains  which  had  bound  me." 
From  that  hour  dated  for  Mann  the  awakening 
of  mind  which  was  to  lead  to  a  sincere  but  very 
broad  religious  faith,  moral  rather  than  theological, 
and  free  from  servitude  to  dogmas,  of  which  some 
one  has  said:  "What  would  be  called  religion  in 
others,  was  morality  in  Mann." 

Mann's  early  education  had  been  acquired  a 
little  at  random,  like  that  of  Rousseau,  but  in 
the  absolutely  pure  and  innocent  atmosphere  of 
country  life.  It  was  from  a  wandering  professor 
that  he  learned  the  rudiments  of  Latin.  An 
ardent  reader,  he  was  at  the  same  time  a  fervent 
worshipper  of  nature ;  he  loved  to  watch  a  glorious 


HORACE  MANN  13 

sunrise,  and  at  night  stretched  out  on  a  grassy 
meadow  to  "  feast  his  eyes  on  the  starry  heavens." 

He  had  an  intense  natural  love  of  beauty,  and 
later,  when  he  had  become  a  pedagogue,  he  did 
not  conceal  his  distrust  of  a  purely  bookish  educa- 
tion. "It  is  a  great  mistake,"  he  said,  "to  be  a 
slave  to  books.  The  secret  of  education  is  not 
love  of  books,  but  love  of  knowledge." 

A  poet  lay  dormant  in  him  —  he  himself  has 
said  so  —  a  tender  enthusiastic  poet  who  reveals 
himself  in  his  flights  of  oratory  and  in  his  literary 
style,  whether  by  dazzling  wealth  of  imagery 
or  by  the  lyrical  expression  of  noble  sentiments. 
Proud  and  high-souled,  he  was  at  the  same  time 
the  most  sensitive  of  men,  uniting  rare  energy 
with  deep  tenderness  of  nature.  When  in  his 
later  life  he  was  called  upon  at  times  to  reprimand 
an  unruly  pupil,  it  was  with  difficulty  that  he  could 
restrain  his  tears. 

In  his  family  relations  he  showed  the  most 
exquisite  delicacy  of  feeling;  while  his  frankness 
and  tenderness  of  nature  gave  infinite  charm  to 
his  friendship. 

For  thirty  years  he  lived  with  his  mother,  taking 
care  to  shield  her  from  all  knowledge  of  his  griefs 
and  perplexities  lest  they  should  sadden  her,  and 
seeking  by  every  means  in  his  power  to  make 


14  HORACE   MANN 

her  life  tranquil  and  happy.  "The  most  exquisite 
emotion  I  have  ever  felt,"  he  writes,  "was  in 
observing  my  mother's  face  brighten  and  her 
step  grow  lighter  on  hearing  something  good  said 
of  me,  and  to  feel  that  this  change  in  her  bearing 
proceeded  from  a  secret  well-spring  of  pleasure 
which  I  had  touched  in  her  heart." 

One  of  the  joys  of  his  life  was  to  return  to  Frank- 
lin and  revisit  the  scenes  of  his  childhood.  He 
often  made  pilgrimages  thither,  and  saw  with 
emotions  of  melancholy  the  paternal  roof,  which 
had  passed  into  strangers'  hands. 

"Here  lived  my  father  whom  I  dimly  remember 
and  my  mother  whose  memory  is  so  much  a  part 
of  me,  and  of  whom  I  can  say  that  if  there  is  any 
good  in  me,  I  owe  it  to  her." 

Two  noble  filial  souls  have  expressed  the  same 
sentiments  in  kindred  language  at  an  interval  of 
fifteen  centuries.  "From  my  father,"  said  Mar- 
cus Aurelius,  "I  inherit  modesty;  to  my  mother 
I  owe  my  piety." 

Mann  carried  into  his  friendships  the  same  ten- 
derness as  into  his  family  ties.  The  list  is  long  of 
the  distinguished  men  with  whom  he  held  fra- 
ternal relations.  Let  us  name  first  Dr.  Howe, 
who  has  been  called  the  Lafayette  of  Greek  inde- 
pendence, having  served  as  surgeon-in-chief  to 


HORACE  MANN  15 

the  Greek  army  and  navy  during  the  revolution 
of  1822,  and  who,  on  his  return  to  America,  de- 
voted himself  to  founding  and  developing  institu- 
tions for  the  blind,  the  deaf  and  dumb,  and  the 
feeble-minded.  (It  was  he  who  educated  the  famous  I 
deaf,  dumb,  and  blind  girl,  Laura  Bridgman.) 

Channing,  the  celebrated  leader  of  the  Unitarian 
body,  to  which  Mann  himself  belonged,1  was  also 
among  his  friends,  as  was  Theodore  Parker,  the 
only  preacher  whom  he  enjoyed  hearing,  and 
who  once  wrote  to  him:  " Spare  your  strength; 
remember  that  if  you  kill  yourself,  it  will  take  the 
Lord  a  long  time  to  give  us  another  Horace  Mann." 

To  this  list  belongs  also  George  Combe,  the 
philosopher,  of  whom  Mann  was  the  disciple  as 
well  as  friend,  and  many  more  to  whom  he  was 
bound  by  community  of  sentiments  and  an  equal 
enthusiasm  for  the  cause  of  popular  education. 
Edward  Everett,  who  had  been  appointed  governor 
of  Massachusetts,  actively  seconded  his  efforts, 
as  did  Senator  Sumner  and  the  mayor  of  Boston, 
Josiah  Quincy. 


1  The  sect  of  Unitarians,  whose  origin  we  must  seek  in  the 
England  of  the  seventeenth  century,  is  the  most  liberal  of  Amer- 
ican religious  bodies.  Its  followers  admit  revelation  without 
accepting  all  its  dogmas.  There  are  no  less  than  600  Unitarian 
congregations  in  America  at  the  present  day. 


16  HORACE  MANN 

For  his  sister  Mann  cherished  the  warmest 
affection  and  a  devotion  of  which  he  gave  proof 
by  coming  to  her  aid  in  a  serious  crisis  and  saving 
her  husband,  a  merchant  who  had  failed  in  business, 
from  financial  ruin.  She  remained  all  her  life  the 
intimate  confidante  of  his  thoughts. 

What  shall  be  said  of  his  worship  of  her  whom 
he  had  chosen  as  the  companion  of  his  life,  and 
who  was  suddenly  snatched  from  him  by  death 
after  two  brief  years  of  perfect  happiness?  He 
had  married  her  in  1831  after  an  engagement  of 
ten  years.  Her  loss  left  in  his  heart  a  wound  that 
was  long  in  healing.  In  his  first  grief  he  wrote: 
"My  whole  life  was  centred  in  the  home  which 
she  brightened  by  her  presence.1  She  imparted 
to  me  renewed  strength  for  my  work  and  inspired 
me  with  fresh  motives  for  courageous  activity. 
I  should  never  end  if  I  attempted  to  describe  the 
revelation  of  moral  beauty  that  flowed  from  her 
life  and  the  grace  of  feeling  which  sprang  like  a  deli- 
cate flower  from  the  adamant  of  her  virtues." 

The  public-spirited  citizen  was  in  no  respect 
inferior  to  the  son,  brother,  and  husband.  As 
a  lawyer  Mann  made  it  a  rule  to  accept  only  just 
causes  and  to  plead  only  for  the  truth;  as  a  mem- 

1  Mann's  first  wife  was  the  daughter  of  Dr.  Messer  of  Brown 
University,  where  he  had  been  a  student. 


HORACE  MANN  17 

her  of  the  legislature  and  senator  he  rose  above 
party  politics,  speaking  only  in  behalf  of  public 
interests  and  great  philanthropic  causes. 

In  1816,  at  the  age  of  twenty,  Mann  had  become 
a  regular  student  at  Brown  University,  a  small 
college  founded  in  1764  in  the  city  of  Providence. 
In  order  to  pay  his  matriculation  fees,  he  gave 
lessons  as  a  tutor  during  the  vacations,  thus  follow- 
ing a  custom  still  prevalent  among  the  poor  students 
of  American  colleges,  some  of  whom  are  reduced 
to  the  necessity  of  paying  their  way  by  seeking 
service  as  hotel  waiters  and  the  like  during  the 
summer.  At  Brown,  Mann  studied  law,  and  dis- 
tinguished himself  at  once  among  his  companions. 
His  masters  bore  witness  that  he  was  the  best  stu- 
dent in  the  university  and,  at  the  same  time,  the 
best  whist  player. 

One  trait  already  characterizes  Mann's  turn 
of  mind  and  natural  trend  of  thought, — he  chose 
for  his  last  scholastic  thesis  the  following  subject: 
"On  the  Progressive  Character  of  the  Human  Race." 
It  is  this  belief  in  progress,  in  the  indefinite  de- 
velopment of  the  moral  and  intellectual  faculties 
of  man,  which  was  to  be  the  watchword  of  his 
whole  life  and  the  motive  of  all  his  actions.1 

1  Another  of  Mann's  youthful  writings  was  entitled  "  On  the 
Duty  of  every  American  toward  Posterity." 


18  HORACE  MANN 

On  the  conclusion  of  his  studies  and  after  having 
held  for  some  time  a  professorship  of  Latin  and 
Greek  literature  at  Brown  University,  Mann  settled 
in  Dedham,  a  small  Massachusetts  town,  where 
he  entered  upon  the  practice  of  the  law,  pleading 
cases  before  the  Norfolk  and  Boston  bars.  He 
was  already  in  full  possession  of  his  oratorical 
powers.  He  was,  according  to  the  testimony  of  his 
biographers,  a  redoubtable  orator,  with  a  terrible 
power  of  sledge-hammer  retorts,  which  he  hurled 
at  his  adversaries  like  bombshells  thrown  into 
an  enemy 's  camp.  On  the  occasion  of  the  national 
holiday,  the  4th  of  July,  1824,  Mann  delivered 
an  address  which  attracted  the  notice  of  John 
Quincy  Adams,1  future  President  of  the  United 
States,  the  same  whom  Mann  was  to  succeed  twenty- 
five  years  later  as  member  of  the  House  of 
Representatives. 

His  reputation  grew  from  year  to  year,  until 
he  had  become  the  most  highly  esteemed  lawyer 
in  that  region.  It  was  in  1827  that  the  confidence 
of  the  electors  of  Norfolk  County  called  him  to 
a  seat  in  the  State  legislature  of  Massachusetts. 

1  John  Quincy  Adams  was  President  of  the  United  States  from 
1825-1829.  A  few  years  after  the  expiration  of  his  term  as  Presi- 
dent, he  was  elected  member  of  Congress  from  Massachusetts  and 
continued  to  be  elected  until  he  died. 


HORACE   MANN  19 

In  1830  he  was  elected  State  senator,  then  presi- 
dent of  the  Senate  in  1836. 

The  part  he  took  in  political  assemblies  was 
always  a  brilliant  one.  He  preached  as  often  as 
possible  what  he  called  his  "  gospel  of  temperance 
and  education."  But  his  idealism  did  not  divert 
him  from  a  due  concern  for  the  material  interests 
of  his  country.  His  two  first  speeches  in  Con- 
gress were  respectively  upon  religious  liberty  and 
upon  railroads.  But  the  subjects  which  chiefly 
occupied  his  energies  at  this  period,  when  he  was 
in  the  habit  of  working  sixteen  hours  a  day,  were 
the  establishment  of  a  lunatic  asylum  and  the 
campaign  against  intemperance.  After  five  years 
of  constant  effort  Mann  obtained  from  the  House 
a  vote  for  necessary  funds  to  erect  a  commodious 
and  suitable  building,  the  Worcester  asylum,  where 
two  hundred  and  thirty  insane  patients  were  to 
be  received,  treated  with  gentleness  and  humanity, 
and  employed  in  agricultural  pursuits.  "We  have 
overthrown  the  dungeons  of  inhumanity,"  he  ex- 
claimed, on  accomplishing  this  work;  "the  out- 
works are  stormed  at  least,  and  some  of  the  unhappy 
prisoners  can  now  enjoy  the  beauty  of  the  physical 
world,  and  before  long  I  hope  they  will  share  the 
benefits  of  the  moral  world."  In  this  humani- 
tarian enterprise  Mann  was  not  merely  a  promoter, 


20  HORACE  MANN 

but,  charged  with  organizing  it  personally,  he 
gave  proof  of  those  administrative  talents  which 
he  was  to  display  some  years  later  in  his  scholastic 
campaign.  Let  us  add  that  he  found  excellent 
associates  to  aid  him;  among  others  a  woman, 
"the  adorable"  Miss  Dix,  to  whom  he  paid  this 
signal  homage : 

-"If  Queen  Victoria  in  one  of  her  triumphal 
progresses  through  her  states  were  to  encounter 
this  more  than  sovereign  American  woman  on 
one  of  her  charitable  progresses,  it  is  the  former, 
not  the  latter,  who  ought  to  bend  the  knee  and 
kiss  the  other's  hand.  Yes,  the  empress  of  so 
many  millions  of  mankind  should  bow  before 
this  angel  from  heaven,  sent  down  for  the  salvation 
of  poor  insane  men  and  women." 

Mann  was  no  less  fortunate  in  his  struggle  against 
intemperance.  Himself  one  of  the  most  temperate 
of  men,  I  do  not  know  whether  he  had  sworn  to 
his  mother,  like  Lincoln,  never  to  touch  intoxicat- 
ing liquors,  but  he  did,  in  fact,  abstain  from  doing 
so,  lamenting  that  he  found  so  few  imitators. 
To  plant  a  school  near  every  dwelling  and  to  re- 
move the  saloon,  such  was  his  plan.  "How  many 
thousands  of  drunkards  would  never  have  become 
so  if  the  saloon  had  been  five  miles  away  from 
their  home!" 


HORACE  MANN  21 

In  1832  Mann  proposed  a  law  forbidding  the 
public  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors,  at  least  on 
Sundays.  The  project  received  but  two  favorable 
votes,  including,  no  doubt,  his  own.  But  he  was 
not  the  man  to  let  himself  be  discouraged  by  a  first 
failure ;  and  thanks  to  his  tenacity  and  his  eloquence, 
the  law  was  passed  in  1837  by  two  hundred  and 
forty  votes  to  seventeen  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives and  twenty-three  to  six  in  the  Senate. 
Thus  fortune  smiled  on  Mann's  political  career; 
he  had  become  a  power  in  the  Massachusetts  legis- 
lature, but  beneath  this  brilliant  surface,  his  private 
life  held  much  of  sadness.  Since  1833  his  home 
had  been  desolate,  and  he  had  never  become  rec- 
onciled to  his  loss.  In  the  private  journal  to 
which  he  was  accustomed  to  confide  every  evening 
the  events  of  his  life  and  his  inmost  thoughts, 
he  speaks  sadly  of  "days  devoid  of  consolation 
and  sleepless,  tearful  nights."  Poverty  had  pur- 
sued him  even  amid  his  successes  at  the  bar  and 
in  the  House.  Who  could  have  imagined  that 
for  a  period  of  six  months  the  brilliant  statesman, 
the  busy  lawyer,  had  only  the  means  of  dining  once 
in  two  days.  At  this  time  he  denied  himself  and 
incurred  heavy  debts -in  order  to  help  his  brother- 
in-law,  who  had  failed.  His  health,  which  had 
been  undermined  by  labor  and  privations,  grew 


22  HORACE  MANN 

daily  worse,  so  that  his  friends  at  one  time  de- 
spaired of  his  life;  and  this  man  of  forty-one 
years,  who  appeared  to  be  broken  down  and  utterly 
crushed,  was  about  to  recover  his  strength  and 
energies  at  the  call  of  an  inner  voice  which  sum- 
moned him  to  act  in  behalf  of  humanity,  —  in  behalf 
of  education  for  the  people.  He  was  about  to 
devote  himself  exclusively  to  the  cause  of  educa- 
tion and  to  enter  upon  a  campaign  in  favor  of 
schools, — a  campaign  of  twelve  years  full  of  sacri- 
fices and  efforts,  the  noblest,  assuredly,  which  the 
annals  of  education  have  to  offer  us. 


n 

HORACE  MANN,  SECRETARY  OF  THE  BOSTON 
BUREAU  OF  EDUCATION 

ON  the  20th  of  April,  1837,  Mann,  in  his  capacity 
of  president  of  the  Massachusetts  Senate,  signed 
an  official  act  relating  to  public  schools  which 
was  to  decide  the  future  course  of  his  life.  By 
this  act  a  board  of  education  was  established,  whose 
primal  object  was  to  study  and  investigate  the 
moral  and  material  condition  of  the  schools  in  order, 
subsequently,  to  discover  and  apply  the  best  methods 
of  improving  them,  the  board  being  thus  both  an 
examining  and  a  reforming  body.  A  few  months 
later  Mann  was  appointed  its  secretary,  and  this 
modest  title  was  to  enable  him  to  become  for  a 
long  period  the  capable  and  indefatigable  agent 
for  the  reorganization  of  the  school  system  of  his 
country.1 

It  was  a  great  change  in  his  life ;  he  now  became 
the  advocate  for  all  men.  "Let  my  new  clients, 

1  Channing,  the  leading  Unitarian  divine,  wrote  to  him:  "  I  hear 
that  you  are  about  to  devote  yourself  to  the  cause  of  education  in 
our  Republic.  I  rejoice  over  it." 

23 


24  HORACE  MANN 

the  rising  generation,  come  to  me,"  he  said.  From 
the  outset  he  had  traced  for  himself  a  line  of  moral 
conduct, — "May  God  grant  me  to  subdue  my  ego- 
tism and  give  me  wisdom  of  mind  and  kindness 
of  heart," — and  at  the  same  time  he  set  before 
himself  a  course  of  action  which  he  was  to  carry 
out  as  faithfully  as  the  former.  He  sketched 
it  in  these  terms  in  a  letter  to  his  sister:  "If  I  can 
be  the  instrument  of  a  reform  which  will  settle 
how  schools  can  be  better  taught,  what  are  the 
best  books,  the  best  plans  of  study,  the  best  methods 
of  education;  if  I  can  discover  by  what  means 
a  child  who  does  not  speak,  who  does  not  think, 
who  does  not  reflect,  can  surely  become  by  means 
of  education  a  noble  citizen,  ready  to  fight  for 
the  right  and  die  for  it,  may  I  not  flatter  myself 
with  the  hope  that  I  have  not  labored  in  vain?" 

And  with  that  power  of  imagination  which 
made  the  most  distant  events  present  to  him, 
which  showed  him  the  future  as  if  it  already  ex- 
isted, he  dreamed  of  the  harvest  while  he  was 
sowing  the  seed.  He  beheld  his  beloved  Massa- 
chusetts covered  with  flourishing  schools,  the  other 
States  of  the  Union  following  her  example,  and 
the  whole  human  race  regenerated  by  education ! 

The  faith  which  animated  him  was  early  im- 
planted in  his  soul;  it  was  drawn  from  a  double 


HORACE  MANN  25 

source, — his  devotion  to  men  and  his  love  of  children. 
No  one  has  spoken  of  childhood  more  tenderly 
than  he: 

"How  engaging  children  are  in  their  happy 
unconsciousness !  Ignorant,  when  they  must  have 
knowledge  in  order  to  live ;  absorbed  in  the  present, 
when  they  are  embarked  for  eternity;  blind  in 
the  midst  of  perils;  as  unconscious  of  the  noble 
enthusiasms  and  ardent  passions  which  slumber 
in  their  breasts  as  the  cloud  is  of  the  storm  and 
thunder  it  hides  in  its  bosom,  —  such  are  these 
cherished  beings  whose  future  is  in  our  hands.  .  .  ." 

Let  us  quote  one  more  charming  passage : 

"How  did  this  fair  child  come  to  us  so  full  of  music 
and  poetry  ?  Who  put  a  whole  dancing-school  into 
his  steps?  At  the  least  sound  which  arouses  his 
gayety,  he  seems  to  throw  off  the  law  of  gravita- 
tion ;  he  floats,  he  glides  as  if  his  body  were  a  light 
feather  and  his  soul  a  breeze  playing  with  it.  The 
child  is  the  greatest  of  miracles !  .  .  ." 

How  many  times  before  becoming  secretary 
of  the  Board  of  Education  had  Mann  addressed 
to  his  countrymen  moving  appeals  in  behalf  of 
instruction,  such  as  he  was  about  to  renew  un- 
ceasingly until  he  had  brought  them  to  feel  as  he 
did,  until  he  had  made  them  realize  the  importance 
of  education,  until  he  had  carried  them  with  him, 


26  HORACE  MANN 

so  that  all  should  resolve  to  shed  light  and  truth 
upon  mankind  "as  God  sheds  sunshine  and  rain 
upon  the  earth  ! " 

"How  is  this?"  he  cried.  "If  some  one  should 
bring  you  word  to-morrow  that  he  had  found 
a  coal  mine  which  would  bring  in  ten  per  cent, 
would  you  not  hasten  to  invest  in  it?  And  yet 
here  are  men  who  might  bring  you  in  forty  or 
fifty  per  cent,  and  you  leave  them  grovelling  in 
ignorance.  You  know  how  to  make  use  of  plants 
and  animals,  you  can  produce  wheat  from  herd's- 
grass  and  turn  the  jackal  into  a  dog;  .  .  .  and 
you  have  children  of  whom  you  can  make  nothing ! 

"You  build  hospitals,  you  establish  law-courts. 
Why?  To  punish  people  for  the  ignorance  which 
has  made  them  criminals;  to  harbor  poor  wretches 
who  have  failed  here  below  for  lack  of  instruction. 
But  are  you  not  yourselves  the  unconscious  authors 
and  accomplices  of  these  evils  which  you  vainly  seek 
to  prevent  or  to  cure?  Build  schools  then;  you 
will  thus  abolish  ignorance,  crime,  and  misery. 
You  will  quench  hatred  and  make  the  happiness 
and  greatness  of  the  nation  through  the  prosperity 
and  morality  of  each  of  its  citizens." 

The  aim  which  Mann  was  pursuing  by  his  personal 
efforts  he  had  long  since  proposed  to  his  countrymen. 
He  had  dreamed  of  it  during  his  thoughtful  child- 


HORACE  MANN  27 

hood  on  the  shores  of  the  ocean,  during  his  youth 
at  Brown  University  when  he  delivered  essays 
on  human  progress,  in  his  manhood  when  he  sat 
in  the  legislature.  But  at  the  moment  when  he 
was  himself  intrusted  with  the  accomplishment 
of  his  dream,  anxiety  mingled  with  his  enthusiasm. 
Men  of  ability  are  apt  to  distrust  their  own  talents 
and  powers.  Should  he  prove  capable  of  carry- 
ing on  so  great  a  mission  and  succeeding  in  an 
enterprise  which  was  partly  technical  ?  "I  tremble, " 
he  writes  in  his  diary,  "at  the  idea  of  this  task 
which  has  fallen  to  me."  His  adversaries  re- 
proached him,  in  fact,  with  a  lack  of  scholastic 
experience.  He  had  been,  it  is  true,  a  tutor  in 
Providence  and  a  member  of  the  school  committee 
in  Dedham.  But  these  were  slender  qualifications 
beside  the  professional  claims  of  his  competitor 
for  the  office,  Professor  Carter,  a  teacher  of  long 
experience.  The  governing  powers  of  Massachu- 
setts must  have  been  fully  persuaded  of  the  pre- 
eminence of  Mann's  moral  qualities  when  they 
chose  him  in  preference  to  such  a  candidate.  They 
had  divine^  what  miracles  were  to  be  expected 
from  his  untiring  devotion  and  from  such  rare 
nobility  of  soul  united  with  such  admirable  energy. 
Mann  amply  justified  their  confidence,  and  af- 
forded one  more  proof  that  it  is  not  always  one 


28  HORACE  MANN 

of  the  trade,  a  professional,  but  on  the  contrary, 
an  outsider  who  most  frequently  accomplishes  the 
great  refoims  in  education. 

That  which  added  to  the  difficulties  of  Mann's 
work  was  the  nature  of  the  duties  intrusted  to 
him.  Neither  he  nor  the  Board  was  invested 
with  any  executive  power.  He  did  not  have 
that  actual  authority  over  schools  and  instructors 
which  the  State  of  New  York,  for  instance,  con- 
ferred on  its  superintendent  of  schools,  an  office 
created  in  1835. 

The  Boston  Board  deliberated,  gave  advice, 
expressed  its  wishes,  but  did  not  direct  in  school 
affairs.  But  the  worth  of  institutions  depends 
upon  the  men  who  form  part  of  them.  With 
a  leader  like  Mann,  who  was  its  soul,  the  Board  of 
Education  exercised  a  decisive  action,  an  ex- 
traordinary influence,  over  the  school  districts  of 
Massachusetts  and  later  of  the  whole  Union,  such 
as  ministers  of  public  instruction  in  other  countries 
might  have  reason  to  envy.  The  following  detail 
clearly  shows  how  conscientiously  Mann  proceeded 
to  fulfil  the  duties  of  his  position.  Before  setting 
to  work  he  entered  upon  a  sort  of  pedagogical 
retreat,  devoting  a  certain  time  to  retirement 
and  meditation.  For  several  weeks  he  shut  himself 
up  in  company  with  books  on  education;  he  read 


HORACE  MANN  29 

and  pondered  over  Miss  Edgeworth's  Practical  Edu- 
cation and  The  Necessity  for  Popular  Education 
by  Dr.  James  Simpson.  He  took  great  pleasure 
in  this  reading,  which  he  pronounced  "delight- 
ful," and  which  furnished  him  with  a  store  of  new 
ideas.  He  convinced  himself  more  and  more  fully 
that  the  educational  mission  on  which  he  had 
entered  was  the  one  that  best  suited  his  tastes, 
feelings,  and  principles.  This  period  of  retirement 
and  reflection  was  not  of  long  duration,  however. 
Mann  received  his  appointment  as  secretary  on 
the  30th  of  June,  1837.  By  the  28th  of  August 
of  the  same  year  he  had  opened  the  campaign 
with  his  first  lecture  tours.  It  was  a  brilliant 
beginning.  In  each  of  the  fourteen  counties  of 
Massachusetts,  Mann  assembled  conventions  of  all 
the  friends  of  education,  teachers,  members  of 
school  committees  from  the  three  hundred  districts 
in  the  State,  leading  members  of  the  community; 
in  short,  all  who  were  eager  to  listen  to  the  burn- 
ing words  of  the  great  educator.  Mann  well  knew 
that  his  first  mission  was  to  win  souls,  to  arouse 
good-will,  to  create  a  current  of  opinion,  to  com- 
municate to  others  the  enthusiasm  with  which 
he  was  himself  possessed.  It  was  at  this  price 
only  that  he  could  hope  for  success.  He  must 
obtain  the  moral  support  of  all  those  interested 


30  HORACE  MANN 

in  the  reform  of  schools,  rouse  from  their  torpor 
the  old  school  committees,  whose  origin  dated 
back  to  the  seventeenth  century.  He  must  also 
secure  the  material  support  of  wealthy  citizens, 
from  whom  he  solicited  donations  while  awaiting 
the  moment  when  these  private  liberalities  should 
arouse  the  emulation  of  the  State,  from  which  he 
hoped  later  to  obtain  funds  to  endow  the  various 
scholastic  establishments  which  he  proposed  to  found. 
On  the  one  hand,  he  must  influence  public  opinion 
to  desire  and  demand  the  necessary  reforms;  on 
the  other  hand,  he  must  induce  the  legislatures 
of  the  country  to  vote  for  them  and  carry  them 
into  execution.  A  minister  of  education  would 
have  been  able  to  draw  up  orders  and  sign  decrees ; 
Mann  could  only  call  conventions  and  draw  up 
reports.  Qlis  position  can  be  defined  by  saying 
that  he  was  before  all,  not  a  philosopher,  not  ar 
practical  instructor,  but  a  soldier,  a  tribune  of 
education,  a  missionary  who  journeyed  from  town 
to  town,  from  village  to  village,  spreading  his  ideas 
and  his  faith,  a  Peter  the  Hermit  preaching  a  cru- 
sade against  ignorance.  On  his  lecture  tours  Mann 
lavished  his  eloquence  like  an  American  Jean 
Mac 4,  —  a  Jean  Mace  of  greater  powers  as  an 
orator  and  loftier  flights.  He  often  addressed 
different  audiences  for  twenty-five  successive  days. 


HORACE  MANN  31 

In  that  free  American  democracy  which  contains 
so  many  kings, — railroad  kings,  petroleum  kings, 
and  the  rest,  —  Mann  was  the  lecture  king.  We 
have  since  seen  presidential  candidates  in  the 
United  States  multiply  themselves  to  a  still  greater 
extent,  and  under  the  spur  of  ambition  pour  forth 
an  even  greater  number  of  speeches,  but  1  in  the 
matter  of  scholastic  addresses,  disinterested  speeches 
in  the  cause  of  education,  Mann  undoubtedly 
holds  the  record,  not  for  his  own  country  alone, 
but  for  the  whole  world. 

We  must  not  imagine,  however,  that  he  met 
with  constant  success  in  these  oratorical  cam- 
paigns, which  he  carried  on  with  so  fine  an  ardor. 
His  annual  lecture  trip  was  not  invariably  a  tri- 
umphal progress.  On  one  occasion  he  had  an 
audience  consisting  of  three  ladies;  another  day, 
a  humiliating  day,  he  found  himself  alone !  He 
owns  sadly  that  political  speeches  would  have 
been  better  attended.  "Politics,"  he  added,  "are 
the  only  god  of  this  people."  And  he  adds  jestingly, 
"If  a  mob  collects  anywhere,  instead  of  reading 
the  riot  act  to  disperse  it,  one  has  only  to  announce 
a  lecture  on  education;  that  will  be  sufficient  — 
not  a  soul  will  remain." 

Let  us  add  that  Mann,  although  a  born  orator, 
ne^er  addressed  an  audience  without  fear  and 


32  HORACE  MANN 

trembling.  He  had,  moreover,  to  contend  against 
physical  weakness.  On  the  eve  of  delivering  three 
or  four  lectures  in  succession,  he  writes  in  his  diary, 
"Alas  for  my  poor  body!" 

He  carried  on  this  propaganda  with  his  pen  as 
well  as  by  speeches;  he  began  publishing  in  1838 
a  scholastic  newspaper  called  the  Common  School- 
Journal,  which  he  continued  to  conduct  for  ten 
years.  He  there  set  forth  in  detail  his  views  on 
special  questions  relating  to  teaching  and  educa- 
tional methods.  He  thus  led  the  way  for  all  the 
pedagogical  journals  which  have  since  flourished 
in  the  United  States;  notably,  the  Journal  of  Edu- 
cation which  Barnard,  the  Horace  Mann  of  Con- 
necticut, edited  for  thirty-one  years.  But  it  was, 
above  all,  by  the  publication  of  his  reports  that 
Mann  exercised  a  marked  influence  on  public 
opinio/n.  The  twelve  statements  which  he  drew 
up  year  after  year  are  a  genuine  pedagogical  monu- 
ment. They  occupied  about  a  thousand  pages 
in  the  edition  of  his  works.  Issued  in  a  large 
edition,  about  twenty  thousand  copies,  they  were 
circulated  in  all  directions,  read  in  remote  hamlets 
as  well  as  in  great  cities;  people  learned  from 
them  what  schools  were  and  what  they  ought  to 
be.  Officially  addressed  to  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, they  were  in  reality  destined  for  the  people, 


HORACE  MANN  33 

whom  it  was  urgent  to  instruct  as  to  the  importance 
of  education.  In  short,  they  were  veritable  scho- 
lastic manifestoes  summoning  public  opinion  to 
provide  instruction  for  the  people. 

Thus  Mann's  annual  reports  resume  twelve  years 
of  intense  labor  and  fruitful  results;  they  have, 
in  the  first  place,  historic  interest,  exhibiting  as 
they  do  the  scholastic  situation  of  the  period 
before  proceeding  to  relate  what  Mann  did  or 
attempted  to  do  to  improve  it.  If  in  the  final 
pages  of  these  reports  he  can  justly  celebrate  the 
progress  brought  about  by  twelve  years  of  labor, 
he  frankly  admits  at  the  outset  the  condition 
of  weakness  and  poverty  into  which  the  three 
hundred  schools  of  Massachusetts  had  fallen.1  The 
fault  lay  especially  with  the  school  committees, 
which  fulfilled  but  negligently  the  wide  functions 
which  existing  legislation  had  intrusted  to  them. 
They  were  to  choose  text-books,  to  "decide  upon 
the  children  too  poor  to  purchase  them,  —  to 

1  The  history  of  American  education  proves  how  powerless  'the 
laws  are  when  they  are  in  advance  of  the  manners  and  habits  of  a 
people.  When  Mann  set  about  his  work  it  was  more  than  two 
hundred  years  since  the  first  colonists  of  America  had  resolved  to 
establish  a  sytem  of  gratuitous  instruction  (1630)  and  of  obliga- 
tory instruction  (1642).  In  1647  it  had  already  been  decided  that 
there  shoulcl  be  a  primary  school  for  every  fifty  families,  and  a 
higher  school  for  every  hundred  families,  but  nothing  of  the  kind 
existed. 


34  HORACE  MANN 

whom  they  should  be  furnished  gratuitously, — 
to  visit  each  school  once  a  month.  ,  It  was  also 
their  mission  to  preside  over  the  choice  of  teachers, 
and  to  make  sure  that  those  selected  were  the 
best  it  was  possible  to  secure  "as  guardians  of  that 
inestimable  treasure, — the  children  of  the  district." 
But  ineffectual  as  are  our  own  school  committees 
(appointed  to  insure  the  execution  of  the  law  of 
obligatory  attendance)  the  American  committees 
seem  to  have  discharged  their  duties  very  little 
better.  School  inspections  were  not  carried  out. 
seriously.  The  committee  man  too  often  con- 
tented himself  with  a  brief  call  in  the  course  of 
a  country  drive  or  a  business  trip,  during  which 
he  fastened  his  horse  at  the  gate,  entered  the  school- 
house  to  rest  and  warm  himself,  and  this  done, 
his  inspection  was  over. 

Like  a  physician  who  thoroughly  studies  all 
the  symptoms  of  a  disease  before  attempting  its 
cure,  Mann  took  careful  note  of  all  the  defects 
and  vices  of  the  system  he  was  attempting  to 
reform,  and  in  the  highly  unflattering  picture  he 
draws  of  the  situation,  he  addresses  many  re- 
proaches to  the  committees.  They  do  not  pay 
sufficient  attention,  he  says,  to  the  choice  of  school- 
books,  and  they  authorize  too  great  a  number; 
they  do  not  take  sufficient  precautions  in  nominat- 


HORACE  MANN  35 

ing  teachers,  of  whom  two-thirds  are  incapable, 
not  having  massed  the  examinations  required  by 
law.  The  school  attendance  is  most  irregular, 
a  third  of  the  pupils  being  absent  during  the  winter 
months,  and  two-fifths  during  the  summer;  the 
schoolhouses  are  poor  and  out  of  repair;  the  me- 
chanical system  of  instruction  is  the  only  one  in 
favor;  and,  finally,  the  salaries  of  both  men  and  » 
women  teachers  are  insufficient,  being  about  twenty- 
five  dollars  for  men  and  eleven  for  women.  But 
what  vexed  Mann's  enthusiastic  soul  more  than 
all  was  the  apathy  of  the  people,  who  seemed 
generally  indifferent  to  school  matters  and  un- 
concerned for  the  education  of  their  children; 
and  recalling  the  doctrine  of  Cousin,  "As  are 
teachers,  so  are  schools,"  the  American  educator 
proposed  to  alter  it  to,  "As  are  parents,  so  are 
schools  and  teachers." 

These  twelve  reports  of  Mann's  are  a  world  in 
themselves.  All  the  essential  questions  of  educa- 
tion are  considered  and  settled  in  turn  in  this  vast 
compendium  of  theoretical  pedagogy,  over  which 
we  shall  cast  a  rapid  glance.  The  reader  will 
be  especially  struck  by  the  breadth  and  largeness 
of  Mann's  views,  but  he  will  soon  be  made  aware 
that  the  secretary  of  the  Boston  Board  did  not 
lose  himself  amid  vague  speculations.  Mann  was 


36  HORACE  MANN 

I  not  a  mere  preacher  of  the  ideal,  he  was  an  Ameri- 
can, and  consequently  positive  and  practical;  the 
most  minute  questions  of  material  organization 
interest  him  equally  with  the  loftiest  problems  of 
moral  training;  he  discusses  the  schoolroom  desks 
and  benches  with  as  much  care  and  competence 
as  the  philosophic  principles  of  discipline.  In 
his  first  report,  Mann  deals  with  ventilation, 
lighting,  and  heating;  he  wants  no  more  school- 
rooms where  the  wind  and  rain  can  enter  and  the 
ink  freeze  in  the  ink-stands.  He  is  anxious  to  place 
these,  whom  he  calls  his  eighty  thousand  Massachu- 
setts children,  in  healthful  and  hygienic  surroundings. 
In  his  second  report,  he  examines  the  methods 
of  instruction  in  reading,  and  condemns  the  alpha- 
betical process,  which  consists  in  spelling  by  letters, 
for  which  he  would  substitute  the  "word  method," 
which  consists  in  teaching  combinations  of  syllables 
and  words  which  recall  to  the  child  familiar  objects 
and  attractive  ideas. 

In  the  third  report,  after  referring  to  child  labor 
in  factories,  Mann  points  out  the  importance  of 
libraries  and  the  influence  which  reading  exerts  over 
the  character.  In  the  fourth,  he  treats  of  school 
attendance,  and  insists  upon  the  necessity  of  divid- 
ing the  pupils  of  each  school  into  graded  classes. 

The  fifth  introduces  us  to  more  general  questions. 


HORACE  MANN  37 

Mann  therein  sets  forth  the  benefits  of  education 
and  shows  how  it  enriches  men  materially,  being 
not  only  a  source  of  moral  wealth,  but  "an  impor- 
tant factor  in  economics."  "  Wealth  always  follows 
intelligence;  the  hand  is  another  and  a  better 
hand  when  knowledge  guides  it."  The  sixth  re- 
port is  devoted  almost  exclusively  to  a  special 
subject,  to  which  Mann  attached  the  highest  im- 
portance, one  of  his  favorite  theses,  —  the  necessity 
of  giving  physiology  a  place  among  school  studies. 
On  this  point  Herbert  Spencer  has  merely  followed 
in  Mann's  steps.  " Whence  comes  it,"  says  Mann, 
"that  one-quarter  of  the  children  who  come  into 
the  world  die  before  reaching  the  age  of  one  year, 
unless  it  results  from  general  ignorance  of  the 
laws  of  life?"  And  still  associating  economic 
reasons  with  sentiments  of  humanity,  he  adds: 
"Infractions  of  physiological  laws  kill  millions 
of  men  and  destroy  millions  of  dollars." 

The  seventh  report,  which  attracted  great  atten- 
tion, is  an  account  of  the  tour  which  Mann  made  in 
1843  through  various  European  countries;  he  also 
considers  here  the  question  of  corporal  punishment 
and  the  difficulties  arising  from  the  excessive 
cultivation  of  the  verbal  memory. 

In  the  report  of  1844  Mann  devotes  himself 
to  the  development  of  an  idea  which  was  dear  to 


38  HORACE  MANN 

him,  —  the  employment  of  women  as  teachers ;  he 
also  attacks  the  question  of  normal  schools  and 
that  of  the  study  of  vocal  music. 

The  ninth  report,  that  of  1845,  is  one  of  the 
most  important.  Mann  here  points  out  to  what 
motives,  —  school  motives,  —  to  what  principles  of 
action,  discipline  and  moral  training  should  in 
his  opinion  appeal.  He  desires  that  the  obedience 
of  pupils  should  in  future  be  founded  on  affection 
and  respect,  not  upon  fear.  He  lays  bare  the 
dangers  of  jealousy  and  envy  arising  from  emu- 
lation; and,  passing  from  modes  of  discipline  to 
methods  of  instruction,  he  follows  Pestalozzi  in 
asking  that  induction  be  substituted  for  deduction, 
the  personal  research  of  an  awakened  intelligence 
for  the  mechanical  tasks  of  slavish  memorizing. 

In  1846,  satisfied  with  the  results  so  far  attained, 
Mann  allows  himself  to  review  the  past  and  pro- 
ceeds to  write  a  history  of  the  Massachusetts  schools 
from  their  origin  in  those  early  days  when  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  brought  with  them  from  Europe 
to  the  virgin  soil  of  America  their  Puritan  faith 
and  their  ideal  of  civic  independence. 

Returning  the  following  year  to  the  influence 
and  effects  of  education,  he  shows  how  it  can  cure 
social  evils,  vices,  and  crimes;  and,  finally,  in  a 
twelfth  report,  the  summing  up  and,  as  it  were, 


HORACE  MANN  39 

the  climax  of  all  the  rest,  he  raises  a  paean  of  victory  j 
and  celebrates  once  more  the  virtues  of  the  public 
schools. 

Assuredly  the  twelve  reports  of  Mann  are 
rather  the  work  of  a  man  of  action,  of  an  educa- 
tional leader,  than  of  a  philosopher  or  a  pedagogue 
who  originates  methods.  But  they  were  admirably 
adapted  to  his  aim,  which  was  to  arouse  the  popular 
mind  and  make  educational  questions  the  order  of 
the  day  in  his  country.  "How  many  dead  minds 
there  are  to  resuscitate!"  he  exclaimed.  Doubt- 
less he  experienced  many  disappointments ;  his  \ 
flaming  words  often  fell  upon  stony  hearts; 
he  was  confronted  with  inertia  and  indifference. 
"When  I  am  about  to  present  my  gospel  of  educa- 
tion in  some  new  place,  I  feel  as  if  I  were  standing 
in  bad  weather  before  the  door  of  a  house  and 
vainly  pulling  the  bell,  with  no  one  at  home  or  all 
too  busy  to  see  me."  But  little  by  little,  thanks 
to  his  persistence,  the  people  awoke;  the  door  was 
opened. 

"There  is  not  one  city,"  he  said,  some  years 
later,  "in  which  I  have  not  found  warm  friends 
of  education  —  everywhere  there  are  a  few,  in 
some  places  their  name  is  legion."  In  drawing 
up  his  reports  Mann  first  made  use  of  his  own 
observations,  of  all  the  facts  and  ideas  he  had 


40  HORACE  MANN 

collected  in  the  course  of  his  official  tours  and  his 
personal  investigations.  But  indefatigable  worker 
as  he  was,  he  excelled  also  in  the  art  of  making 
others  work.  He  caused  to  be  sent  to  him  each 
year  by  the  school  committees  more  than  three 
hundred  local  reports,  —  as  many  as  there  were  dis- 
tricts in  the  State;  and  thanks  to  these  regular 
communications,  he  was  thoroughly  well  posted. 

But  in  order  to  inform  himself  still  more  fully, 
he  appealed  to  volunteer  co-workers,  and  applied 
successfully  the  method  which  has  since  become 
extremely  popular  in  America,  and  which  in  our 
own  day  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  introduce 
into  France:  that  of  sending  circulars  or  sets  of 
questions  upon  various  subjects  addressed  to  com- 
petent persons.  Thus,  in  1841,  he  made  an  inquiry 
by  correspondence  into  the  subject  of  which  he 
had  treated  in  his  fifth  report.  He  inquired  of 
business  men,  merchants,  manufacturers,  their  opin- 
ions as  to  education  from  an  economic  point  of 
view. 

Similarly,  in  1847,  he  proposed  the  following 
questions:  "What  influence  may  the  school  have 
on  the  morality  of  the  pupils?  Under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  best  systems  of  education  which 
we  are  able  to  establish  to-day,  in  what  proportion 
can  we  hope  that  the  children  attending  the  schools 


HORACE  MANN  41 

will  become  honorable  men,  honest  merchants, 
conscientious  jurymen,  incorruptible  legislators, 
electors,  and  magistrates,  good  parents,  good  neigh- 
bors, and  useful  citizens?  What  number,  on  the 
other  hand,  will  remain  refractory  to  all  efforts 
made  to  preserve  them  from  vice?  What  pro- 
portion out  of  a  hundred  of  these  children  are 
liable  to  become  drunkards,  gamblers,  tramps, 
rioters,  thieves,  slanderers,  murderers?"  Mann  dis- 
tributed this  circular  among  such  of  his  country- 
men as  were  best  qualified  to  pronounce  an  opin- 
ion, notably  to  David  Page,  Solomon  Adams, 
Roger  Howard,  Catherine  Beecher.  All  replied 
that  the  influence  of  the  school  might  be  supreme, 
and  this  unanimous  testimony  filled  Mann  with 
delight. 

Of  all  Mann's  reports  the  one  which  attracted 
the  most  notice  was  the  seventh,  in  which  he  gave 
an  account  of  his  journey  to  Europe  in  1843.  Mann 
had  married,  on  the  1st  of  May  of  that  year,  Mary 
Peabody,  who,  like  her  sister  Elizabeth,  had  devoted 
herself  to  the  work  of  education.  This  European 
trip  was  their  wedding  journey.  It  was  to  be  also 
a  rest  tour  for  Mann,  who  was  so  much  exhausted 
by  his  labors  and  struggles  that  he  had  begun  to 
ask  himself  whether  he  should  have  strength  to 
carry  on  his  work.  His  brain  was  so  excited  by 


42  HORACE  MANN 

a  perpetual,  feverish  activity  that  "it  worked  of 
itself,"  according  to  an  expression  of  Dr.  Howe. 

Finally,  it  was  a  tour  for  study,  the  traditional 
European  tour,  which  Barnard,  who  constantly 
emulated  Mann,  was  to  accomplish  in  his  turn 
two  years  later,  in  1845.  How  many  have  since 
followed  in  their  steps!  During  his  six  months 
of  travel,  Mann  interested  himself  with  a  lively 
curiosity  in  all  the  sights  which  the  Old  World 
offered  to  his  astonished  eyes.  His  journal  is 
full  of  brilliant  descriptions,  whether  of  the  monu- 
ments, museums,  churches,  which  he  visited,  or  of 
the  historic  sights  and  scenery  which  he  gazed 
at  in  passing.  But  it  is  especially  the  philan- 
thropic establishments  —  the  hospitals,  prisons, 
houses  of  reform  for  young  culprits,  asylums  for 
the  blind  and  deaf  and  dumb,  and,  above  all,  the 
schools — which  attracted  his  attention.  On  this 
last  point  he  does  full  justice  to  the  Old  World, 
praising  the  schools  of  Scotland  and  especially 
those  of  Germany  to  such  an  extent  that  he  seriously 
offended  the  national  pride  of  his  countrymen. 
At  Halle  he  admires  Francke's  Institute,  with  its 
three  thousand  pupils,  at  that  time  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Niemeyer;  and  he  respectfully  salutes  the 
statue  of  its  founder,  the  pedestal  of  which  bears 
the  simple  inscription:  "He  had  faith  in  God." 


HORACE  MANN  43 

At  Darmstadt  he  is  surprised  to  learn  from  the 
director  of  schools  that  fortunate  Germany  had 
no  difficulties  to  encounter  in  regard  to  school 
attendance  and  regularity  on  the  part  of  the  pupils, 
because  "  German  children  are  born  with  the  innate 
idea  that  they  are  to  go  to  school.7'  "With  us," 
Mann  adds  sadly,  "the  school  records  of  present 
and  absent  prove  that  this  instinct  is  unknown 
to  the  American  child."  In  Berlin,  at  Groningen1 
in  Prussia,  in  Saxony  especially,  Mann  found 
occasion  for  praising  and  extolling,  not  perhaps 
without  a  strain  of  exaggeration,  the  qualities  of 
German  instructors. 

"All  the  defects  of  the  German  schools,"  he 
wrote,  "find  their  corrective  in  the  qualities  of 
the  masters.  If  one  could  bring  together  all  those 
whom  I  have  visited  in  their  schools,  they  would 
form  one  of  the  finest  assemblages  of  men  I  have 
ever  met.  Full  of  intelligence,  of  dignity,  and 
gentleness,  they  give  by  their  manners  and  bear- 
ing the  impression  of  conscientious  devotion  to 
duty.  In  our  American  schools,  where  we  often 

1  In  these  two  cities,  Mann,  who  had  always  been  deeply  inter- 
ested in  the  deaf  and  dumb  language,  ascertained  that  articulate 
speech  had  already  been  substituted  for  the  old  system  of  a  sign 
language.  On  his  return  to  America,  he  attempted  to  popularize  the 
use  of  the  new  method,  but  without  success.  Articulate  speech 
was  not  to  be  introduced  in  America  until  twenty-six  years  later, 
when  it  was  taught  in  Boston. 


44  HORACE  MANN 

have  recourse  to  women  as  teachers,  one  of  the 
chief  arguments  in  favor  of  this  practice  is  that 
women  are  gentler,  more  affectionate  and  encourag- 
ing than  men.  In  Germany  this  argument  would 
not  be  understood,  or  rather  the  facts  which  justify 
it  with  us  do  not  exist  there.  Indeed,  I  have 
never  seen  in  the  German  schools  a  single  instance 
of  harshness  or  severity;  all  is  encouragement, 
animation,  sympathy.  I  have  seen  hundreds  of 
schools  and  thousands  of  pupils,  but  I  have  never 
met  one  pupil  who  underwent  punishment  in  my 
presence." 

There  is  certainly  some  exaggeration  here; 
gentleness  has  never  been  claimed  as  the  chief 
quality  of  German  schoolmasters.  In  the  pres- 
ence of  the  visiting  inspector  or  of  a  stranger 
taking  notes,  teachers  and  pupils  are  alike  on 
their  guard  and  do  not  always  show  themselves 
in  their  true  light.  With  some  naivete  Mann 
judged  by  appearances.  He  was  also  delighted 
to  observe  what  joy  the  German  masters  mani- 
fested when  their  pupils  replied  correctly  to  the 
questions  put  to  them.  "I  have  seen  a  master 
in  his  gratification  at  a  correct  answer  clasp  his 
pupil  in  his  arms  and  caress  him  with  paternal 
tenderness,  as  if  unable  to  repress  his  joyful 
emotion.  ." 


HORACE  MANN  45 

Mann  fortunately  discovered  other  more  inter- 
esting and  genuine  features  of  German  education: 
the  methods  by  which  reading  was  taught,  writing 
treated  as  a  branch  of  drawing,  geography  as- 
sociated with  history  and  the  natural  sciences, 
the  importance  accorded  to  singing  in  schools. 

Enthusiastic  over  Germany  to  such  an  extent 
that  some  of  his  countrymen,  on  reading  his  account 
of  his  journey,  nicknamed  him  "the  Prussian," 
Mann  was,  on  the  other  hand,  decidedly  severe 
toward  the  French  schools.  We  need  not  wonder 
at  this;  for  in  spite  of  the  progress  achieved  since 
the  Guizot  law  was  passed  in  1833,  we  were  still 
at  that  time  far  behind  Germany.  The  French 
character  seems,  moreover,  to  have  inspired  in  him 
more  distrust  than  sympathy.  Ten  years  later, 
in  1853,  after  the  Napoleonic  coup  d'etat,  he  wrote 
to  his  friend  Combe:  "What  do  you  think  of 
France  ?  Frivolity,  sensualism,  Catholicism  —  from 
these  three  causes  united,  what  may  'riot  be  the 
issue  debasing  to  humanity?" 

In  1843  Mann  could  see  in  our  people  only  their 
defects:  the  military  spirit  of  a  nation  eager  for 
glory  and  conquest,  heir  to  the  ambitions  of 
a  Napoleon  —  and  yet  he  visited  France  during  the 
peaceful  reign  of  Louis  Philippe.  Read,  for  ex- 
ample, what  he  writes  after  a  visit  to  the  park  and 


46  HORACE  MANN 

palace  of  Versailles,  of  which  he  remarks,  how- 
ever, that  they  surpass  in  extent  and  splendor 
all  that  he  has  yet  seen  in  Europe.  "The  palace 
of  Versailles  contains  a  gallery  where  the  history 
of  France  is  told  in  painting.  One  sees  there 
pictures  representing  all  Napoleon's  great  battles, 
portraits  of  marshals  of  France,  admirals,  and 
kings.  Everything  breathes  of  war;  a  warlike 
flame  blows  over  it;  all  is  red  with  the  blood  of 
battles.  You  would  call  it  rather  a  temple  dedicated 
to  Mars  than  the  work  of  a  civilized  nation  in  the 
nineteenth  century  of  the  so-called  Christian  era. 
We  should  have  said  beforehand  that  it  was  im- 
possible for  such  a  work  to  have  been  conceived, 
but  when  we  know  the  French  character  thoroughly, 
we  say,  on  the  contrary,  that  it  was  impossible 
for  such  a  work  not  to  have  been  done.  It  is 
only  at  rare  intervals  that  we  come  across  some 
scattered  memorials  which  recall  the  philosophers, 
the  sages,  the  philanthropists.  All  this  is  done 
merely  to  cultivate  and  develop  a  passion  for  the 
criminal  glory  of  war.  .  .  ." 

If  Mann  were  living  now,  he  would  perhaps 
be  obliged  to  modify  somewhat  his  judgment  of 
France  and  it  is  for  American  imperialism  that 
he  would  doubtless  reserve  some  of  his  bitterest 
censures.  On  the  whole,  he  returned  from  his 


HORACE  MANN  47 

travels  with  mingled  impressions.  The  moral  sit- 
uation of  Europe,  its  political  and  social  institu- 
tions, were  not  of  a  nature  to  suit  either  his  republi- 
canism or  his  virtue.  He  saw  in  them  the  result 
of  long  centuries  of  ignorance,  superstition,  and 
tyranny;  he  was  aghast  at  the  immorality  dis- 
played in  the  great  cities. 

"The  children  in  certain  quarters  of  Manchester 
and  London  are  surrounded  by  such  baleful  in- 
fluences and  such  abominable  examples  that  they 
may  be  said  to  have  been  born  to  be  imprisoned, 
transported,  or  hung  as  surely  as  wheat  grows  to 
be  eaten." 

And  so  from  the  heart  of  Europe,  seeing  all  its 
vices  at  close  range  and  recalling  America  only 
by  its  virtues,  he  reverted  with  pride  to  the  memo- 
ries of  his  beloved  country;  he  evoked  the  shades 
of  the  forefathers  landing  on  Plymouth  Rock;  he 
venerated  them  as  if  they  had  carried  away  from 
Europe  all  the  goodness  there  when  they  set  forth 
to  build  schoolhouses  and  churches  amid  the  newly 
cleared  forests,  that  they  might  thus  keep  the  sacred 
flames  of  learning  and  piety  still  burning. 

On  his  return  to  Boston,  however,  Mann  was 
destined  to  discover  once  again  that  all  was  not 
for  the  best  in  the  best  of  Americas,  that  the  noblest 
intentions  could  be  misunderstood  and  travestied 


48  HORACE  MANN 

there,  and  that  the  spirit  of  piety  inherited  from 
the  Puritan  forefathers  might  also  have  its  defects 
and  inconveniences.  In  the  genuine  ardor  of  his 
convictions,  he  had  perhaps  dreamed  of  a  progress 
without  opposition,  a  mild  and  peaceable  admin- 
istration inspired  by  his  kindly  spirit  and  eagerly 
accepted  by  all.  He  was  soon  undeceived;  violent 
opposition  and  bitter  quarrels  awaited  him,  partly 
religious  and  political,  and  partly  professional. 
It  was  especially  after  his  European  trip  that  the 
storm  burst;  but  from  the  start  Mann's  work  had 
been  confronted  by  bitter  opponents,  among  whom 
was  the  Rev.  Mr.  Smith,  a  rabid  Calvinist,  who  re- 
minded him  by  his  fanaticism  of  Parson  Evans 
of  the  Franklin  church,  and  whom  he  dubbed  "an 
indomitable  hyena. " 

History,  it  is  said,  repeats  itself  from  age  to  age. 
What  is  not  less  true  is,  that  it  repeats  itself  from 
country  to  country.  Separated  by  oceans  though 
they  may  be,  the  same  plants  spring  up,  the  same 
passions  rage  on  either  shore.  Mann  encountered 
in  his  country  the  same  violent  opposition  which 
in  our  own  day  and  our  own  land  have  prevailed 
against  the  organizers  of  common  school  or  primary 
instruction.  In  the  Massachusetts  of  fifty  years 
ago,  as  in  France  for  the  last  twenty  years,  sec- 
tarians have  declaimed  against  what  they  call 


HORACE  MANN  49 

"godless  schools."  The  organization  of  the  public 
school,  of  the  American  "  civic  school,"  as  Mann 
conceived  it,  strongly  resembles  in  its  origin  the 
establishment  of  lay  schools  in  France.  Up  to 
the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  schools 
of  New  England,  the  old  Puritan  schools,  had 
remained  subject  to  the  Church;  the  ministers 
of  religion  visited  them  frequently  and  gave  in- 
struction in  the  catechism.  Calvinism,  at  that 
time  the  dominant,  in  fact,  the  only  faith,  reigned 
supreme.  The  New  England  Primer,  the  reading- 
book  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  children,  was 
steeped  in  Calvinist  doctrines. 

For  this  sectarian  school  ruled  by  the  Church,  or 
rather  the  churches,  since  orthodoxy  had  become 
dismembered  into  several  distinct  sects, — Mann 
had  sought  to  substitute  an  undenominational 
school,  religious  still,  no  doubt,  since  he  recom- 
mended the  reading  of  the  Bible  and  esteemed 
it  a  work  of  inestimable  value  in  forming  the  char- 
acters of  the  young, — but  independent  of  all  de- 
nominational teaching  and  severed  from  those 
sects  which  divided  between  them  the  dominion 
over  souls. 

In  France,  it  is,  .Jhe  philosophical  and  lay  mind 
which  has  succeeded  tardily  in  separating  the 
school  and  the  Church;  in  the  United  States, 


50  HORACE  MANN 

it  is  from  the  diversity  of  religious  beliefs,  from 
the  multiplicity  of  Christian  churches,  that  the 
same  movement  has  emanated.  As  long  as  Cal- 
vinism was  dominant,  there  had  been  no  difficulty 
in  accepting  the  teaching  of  one  exclusive  doctrine 
in  the  schools;  but  when  Baptists,  Methodists, 
Episcopalians,  Congregationalists,  and  Unitarians 
began  to  divide  the  allegiance  of  the  Christian 
congregations,  each  of  these  sects,  being  no  longer 
able  to  rule  alone  in  the  schools,  naturally  sought 
to  eliminate  all  rival  beliefs  and  to  secularize  in- 
struction in  the  public  schools,  open  as  they  were 
to  children  of  all  sects  and  conditions. 

But  this  logical  conclusion,  to  which  the  di- 
versity of  religious  opinions  would  seem  to  lead, 
was  not  yet  admitted  in  Mann's  time.  The  ortho- 
dox sects,  moreover,  had  not  yet  resigned  them- 
selves to  the  loss  of  their  supremacy.  Mann  was 
an  object  of  suspicion  in  their  eyes, — he  was  a  Uni- 
tarian; that  is  to  say,  what  the  most  advanced 
liberal  Protestants  are  with  us.  He  eliminated 
creeds  and  was  at  bottom  a  rationalist,  remaining 
a  Christian  in  spirit  only,  not  according  to  the 
letter. 

Did  he  not  give  the  worst  possible  example  to 
the  young  by  abstaining  from  attendance  at  public 
worship?  It  was  remarked  that  on  a  certain 


HORACE   MANN  51 

Sunday  he  had  failed  to  be  present  at  any  religious 
service  in  the  city  where  he  had  gone  to  lecture: 
this  was  regarded  as  intolerable.  Mann  excused 
himself,  and  perhaps  aggravated  his  offence,  by 
remarking  that  as  there  were  three  churches  of 
different  faiths  in  the  town  in  question  and  he 
had  not  attended  any  of  them,  he  had  committed 
the  offence  with  which  he  was  charged  three  times 
over. 

As  to  the  essential  basis  of  the  discussion,  he 
reminded  his  opponents  that  the  legislative  act 
of  1827  had  interdicted  in  the  American  schools 
the  use  of  books  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  any  sect 
whatever,  and  that  accordingly  he  was,  on  the 
whole,  conforming  to  the  law.  Already  in  1840 
the  sectarians  in  Massachusetts  had  opened  the 
conflict  against  Mann  in  the  legislature.  His  friend 
Everett  was  no  longer  there  to  defend  him.  The 
moment  appeared  a  favorable  one  for  attacking 
the  liberals,  as  a  wind  of  reaction  was  abroad  in 
the  country.  The  United  States  in  the  ascending 
march  of  their  free  democracy  have  known  more 
than  one  16th  of  May.  They  had  not  been  spared 
the  swing  of  the  pendulum  and  the  return  to 
power  of  the  conservative  party.  The  State  of 
New  York  had  at  this  time  actually  abolished 
the  office  of  superintendent  of  schools  which  it 


52  HORACE  MANN 

had  created  several  years  previous.  In  Connecticut 
a  political  reaction  had  deprived  Barnard  of  his 
position  as  superintendent.  Why  should  not  Mas- 
sachusetts follow  their  example  by  suppressing 
its  Board  of  Education?  Religious  animosities 
sought  disguise  under  political  pretexts.  The  Board, 
that  product  of  freedom,  was  represented  as  a  dan- 
gerous instrument  of  centralization,  an  organ  of 
despotic  authority  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  Ameri- 
can institutions.  In  spite  of  all  this  agitation 
"the  bigots,"  as  Mann  called  them,  were  defeated 
by  245  to  182  votes.  Does  not  this  recall  the 
doubtful  victories  which  Jules  Ferry  won  in  1880, 
when  he  barely  obtained  from  the  Senate  by 
small  majorities  the  vote  for  the  school  laws? 

Mann  had  not  only  to  struggle  against  religious 
fanaticism  and  to  repel  the  assaults  of  the  odium 
theologicum.  To  the  orthodox  sectarians  were 
joined  the  defenders  of  routine  and  tradition  in 
education.  It  was  in  1843  and  1844  that  the  storm 
burst  forth  with  peculiar  violence,  excited  by  the 
publication  of  Mann's  report  on  his  return  from 
abroad,  in  which  he  set  forth  the  pedagogical 
superiority  of  the  Old  World.  The  school-teachers 
of  Boston,  to  the  number  of  thirty-one,  banded 
themselves  against  him.  They  had  never  for- 
given him  his  appointment  as  secretary  of  the 


HORACE  MANN  53 

Board  of  Education  in  place  of  a  professional 
teacher.  And  now  was  it  to  be  calmly  endured 
that  an  American  should  remark,  among  many 
similar  observations,  that  when  he  beheld  the 
activity  of  masters  and  pupils  in  European  schools, 
the  schools  of  his  own  country  seemed  to  him,  in 
comparison,  like  dormitories,  and  the  pupils  like 
" hibernating  animals  —  actual  marmots"? 

Accordingly,  the  Boston  professors  on  the  plea 
of  patriotic  sentiment  proceeded  to  draw  up  a 
species  of  arraignment  against  the  Board  and  its 
secretary.  Their  appeal  was  undoubtedly  ad- 
dressed to  the  national  pride,  wounded  by  tfTe  pref- 
erence which  Mann  avowed  for  European  schools, 
but  at  bottom  it  was  tradition  with  all  its  array 
of  prejudices  which  had  risen  against  this  innovator. 

And  it  must  be  added  that  the  professors  in 
their  campaign  against  Mann  were  joined  by  the 
authors  and  editors  of  classical  school-books,  who 
felt  their  interests  threatened,  and  who  resented 
statements  like  the  following:  " There  are  at  this 
moment  three  hundred  text-books  in  use  where 
twenty  or  thirty  would  be  sufficient."  Teachers 
are,  as  a  rule,  conservative  in  spirit  and  opposed 
to  innovations;  those  of  Boston  were  peculiarly 
so,  by  reason  of  the  exceptional  position  which 
their  early  fame  had  given  them  throughout  the 


54  HORACE  MANN 

country.  They  were  justly  proud  of  their  schools, 
of  which  it  had  been  said  that  they  were  the  "  glory 
and  pride  of  Massachusetts."  Faithful  to  their 
traditions,  and  feeling  that  they  had  carried  the 
time-honored  system  to  perfection,  they  could 
not  conceive  of  any  change  as  desirable  or  any 
progress  as  possible.  They  had  done  very  well 
without  a  board  of  education  for  two  hundred 
years;  they  could  do  without  it  still.  Mann  had 
come  with  his  bold  undertakings,  upsetting  estab- 
lished institutions  and  disturbing  time-honored 
customs.  His  free  and  ardent  speech,  his  mind 
eager  in  quest  of  novelties,  unsettled  the  general 
tranquillity,  and  what  authority  had  he  for  so 
doing  ?  He  was  a  mere  amateur  philosopher,  med- 
dling in  matters  of  education  of  which  he  knew 
nothing,  without  practical  experience  or  scholastic 
antecedents,  —  a  lawyer  astray  amid  pedagogues ! 
And  while  formulating  their  grievances,  the  one 
and  thirty  Boston  pedagogues  at  the  same  time 
multiplied  their  accusations.  Not  one  of  the  in- 
novations attempted  by  Mann  found  favor  in  their 
eyes.  Normal  schools  were  useless,  since  there 
had  always  been  a  supply  of  good  teachers  without 
them.  Have  we  not  encountered  similar  opposi- 
tion in  France  in  1880  and  1881  when  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Third  Republic  inaugurated  the  higher 


HORACE  MANN  55 

normal  schools  of  Fontenay  and  Saint-Cloud? 
Mann  replied  that  one  of  the  essential  duties  of  the 
State  was  to  take  efficacious  measures  to  guarantee 
the  professional  education  of  schoolmasters.  "The 
school  committees,"  he  said,  "are  like  sentinels 
stationed  at  the  door  of  every  schoolhouse  to  make 
sure  that  only  the  best  teachers  whom  it  is  possible 
to  procure  shall  enter." 

The  new  methods  of  discipline,  as  Mann  under- 
stood it,  were  incriminated.  The  schoolmasters 
were  of  the  same  opinion  as  the  theologian  Smith : 
they  regretted  to  see  banished  from  the  schools 
religion — and  the  lash! 

Yet  on  this  point  Mann  did  not  show  himself 
intractable.  He  undoubtedly  considered  it  the 
duty  of  masters  to  rule  by  reason  and  the  heart, 
by  arousing  the  highest  sentiments  and  motives 
of  action,  but  in  extreme  cases,  where  moral  sua- 
sion proved  insufficient,  where  the  charms  of  knowl- 
edge and  the  interest  of  study  were  not  enough 
to  secure  order  and  industry,  he  admitted,  as  did 
Locke,  that  recourse  should  be  had  to  corporal 
punishment.  These  violent  attacks  of  his  adver- 
saries acted  injuriously  upon  Mann  and  irritated 
him  to  the  point  of  affecting  his  health.  It  is  at 
this  period  that  he  wrote  to  a  physician,  a  friend 
of  his:  "Can  you  do  anything  for  a  patient  who 


56  HORACE  MANN 

has  not  slept  for  three  weeks?  I  feel  an  inex- 
tinguishable fire  inside  my  brain,  continually  blaz- 
ing, like  the  flame  of  dry  wood  blown  by  the  wind." 

Mann  was  undoubtedly  kind  and  gentle  by 
nature,  and  in  the  language  of  phrenology,  which 
was  so  dear  to  him,  he  had  the  "bump"  of  be- 
nevolence highly  developed.  But  on  this  occasion, 
stung  to  the  quick  by  the  unjust  strictures  of 
his  opponents,  he  lost  patience.  Not  content, 
in  his  replies,  with  defending  himself,  he  attacks 
in  his  turn,  and  assumes  the  offensive  with  con- 
siderable temper  and  acrimony.  He  lashes  the 
partisans  of  routine  and  does  not  spare  insulting 
epithets.  "There  are  owls,"  he  cries,  "who,  to 
suit  the  universe  to  their  blind  eyes,  would  prevent 
the  sun  from  rising." 

Mann  suffered  therefore  in  this  campaign  which 
was  being  waged  against  him;  but  some  good 
resulted  to  the  cause  which  he  was  defending. 
Public  opinion  received  a  fresh  impulse ;  attention 
was  brought  to  bear  upon  the  Boston  public 
schools;  the  pupils  were  subjected  to  a  public 
examination,  and  the  defects  in  their  instruction 
were  pointed  out.  Henceforth,  the  masters  stood 
alone  in  regarding  them  as  perfect.  It  was  shown, 
for  example,  that  the  practice  of  flogging  as  a 
punishment  exceeded  all  bounds.  To  remedy  this 


HORACE  MANN  57 

evil,  the  school  committee  ordered  that  in  future 
a  register  of  punishments  should  be  kept  under 
supervision.  A  short  time  after,  Mann  learned 
with  satisfaction  that  corporal  punishment  had 
diminished  twenty-five  per  cent. 

But  Mann's  ardor  was  not  directed  merely 
toward  reforming  existing  schools;  it  showed  it- 
self also  in  important  new  creations,  notably  in 
the  establishment  of  normal  schools.  Mann  is  the 
actual  founder  of  the  United  States  normal  schools, 
which  to-day  number  one  hundred  and  seventy-eight, 
public  and  private.  He  established  three  in  Mas- 
sachusetts. Henry  Barnard  followed  his  example 
in  Connecticut  in  1839.  The  State  of  New  York 
in  its  turn  founded  that  of  Albany,  whose  first 
principal  was  the  celebrated  David  Page.  In 
Mann's  eyes  no  other  question  equalled  this  in 
importance. 

7  "I  regard  normal  schools  as  a  new  instrument 
of  progress  for  the  improvement  of  the  human 
race.  I  consider  that  without  them  the  public 
schools  would  lose  their  strength  and  power  for 
good  and  become  mere  charity  schools.  Neither 
the  art  of  printing,  nor  freedom  of  the  press,  nor 
free  suffrage  could  long  subsist  for  useful  and 
salutary  ends  if  schools  for  the  education  of  teachers 
ceased  to  exist.  In  fact,  if  we  allow  the  character 


58  HORACE  MANN 

and  talents  of  school-teachers  to  be  lowered,  the 
schools  will  become  poor,  and  poor  schools  will 
form  poor  minds,  and  the  free  press  will  become 
a  lying  and  licentious  press,  and  the  ignorant 
elector  will  become  a  venal  elector  until,  under 
the  outward  form  of  a  republic,  a  set  of  depraved 
and  criminal  men  will  govern  the  country."  .xx 

In  1839  and  1840  three  normal  schools  were 
founded  at  Mann's  suggestion:  one  at  Lexington 
for  women  teachers  only,  the  two  others  at  Barre 
and  Bridgewater  for  both  sexes. 

Undertaken  provisionally  and  as  an  experiment, 
they  were  only  definitely  established  on  the  2d  of 
March,  1842,  when  the  legislature  voted  an  annual 
sum  for  their  maintenance.  It  was  a  welcome 
day  to  Mann  and  was  not  without  a  morrow,  since 
on  the  3d  of  March  the  House  voted  a  further 
grant  for  school  libraries. 

"Never,"  he  wrote,  "have  brighter  days  dawned 
upon  our  cause.  The  delight  which  I  feel  at  the 
success  of  our  plans  does  not  grow  less  and  will 
have  a  salutary  effect  upon  my  health  and  spirits. 
The  painful  toil,  which  I  have  undergone  for  years, 
has  been  like  a  vampire  sucking  the  blood  from 
my  heart  and  the  marrow  from  my  bones.  I  feel 
now  that  my  strength  will  revive,  and  I  shall  be 
able  to  do  more  and  better  work." 


HORACE   MANN  59 

Normal  schools,  however,  had  a  very  modest 
beginning  in  Massachusetts.  In  Lexington,  on 
the  opening  day,  only  three  young  girls  inscribed 
their  names.  The  term  of  study  was  to  be  of  one 
year  only,  as  it  was  with  us  at  the  opening  of 
Fontenay-aux-Roses.  These  new  institutions  did 
not  lack  critics;  they  were  accused,  in  the  first 
place,  of  drawing  pupils  away  from  the  acad- 
emies,— those  colleges  for  intermediate  instruction 
which  up  to  this  time  had  supplied  with  more  or 
less  success  the  men  and  women  teachers  for  the 
primary  schools.  These  critics  refused  to  admit 
that  popular  education  required  for  the  professional 
training  of  its  teachers  special  schools  distinct 
from  those  where  general  culture  was  combined 
with  a  solid  technical  education.  What  wonder 
that  the  views  of  these  opponents  of  the  movement 
found  credit  among  Mann's  contemporaries,  when 
in  our  own  day  we  have  witnessed  advanced 
minds  demanding  the  suppression  of  our  one  hundred 
and  sixty  normal  schools,  which  are,  nevertheless, 
among  the  finest  ^forks  of  the  Third  Republic,  and 
proposing  to  transfer  the  training  of  instructors  to 
the  Lycees  and  universities? 

On  the  other  hand,  Mann  found  himself  sur- 
rounded by  enthusiastic  adherents.  Already  in 
1837  the  Rev.  Charles  Brooks  had  accompanied 


60  HORACE   MANN 

him  on  his  lecture  tours  and  supported  him  in  his 
campaign  in  behalf  of  the  normal  school  with 
such  ardent  zeal  that  the  opposition  newspapers 
published  caricatures  in  which  Mr.  Brooks  was 
depicted  as  a  coachman,  whip  in  hand,  driving 
a  team  of  school-teachers  toward  a  normal  school 
in  the  clouds.  .  .  . 

The  American  normal  school,  however,  de- 
scended from  the  clouds  to  the  solid  earth,  thanks 
to  the  efforts  of  Mann  and  his  friends,  and  also  to 
the  generosity  of  a  good  citizen,  Mr.  Edmund 
Dwight,  who  offered  a  donation  of  $10,000  toward 
the  professional  training  of  school  masters  and 
mistresses,  on  condition  that  the  State  should 
contribute  a  like  sum.  This  method  has  since 
become  a  popular  one  among  wealthy  patrons  of 
education  in  the  United  States.  These  benefactors 
are  in  the  habit  of  offering  one  or  two  millions,  or 
even  more,  for  the  founding  of  a  university  or  library, 
provided  that  the  government  or  other  donors 
shall  provide  an  equal  sum;  and  this  measure 
invariably  succeeds,  thereby  justifying  the  familiar 
saying  that  it  is  only  the  first  step  that  costs.  Ed- 
mund Dwight  was  neither  a  Carnegie,  a  Rocke- 
feller, nor  a  Leland  Stanford.  The  America  of 
1838  had  not  yet  witnessed  those  princely  dona- 
tions which  in  our  day  have  sometimes  exceeded 


HORACE   MANN  61 

a  million  dollars.  Nevertheless,  Mr.  Dwight's  gift 
of  $10,000  caused  deep  joy,  " indescribable  joy/' 
to  Horace  Mann. 

^  Another  and  different  form  of  good  luck  attended 
him  in  the  foundation  of  his  normal  schools.  He 
had  the  rare  fortune  to  be  able  to  lay  his  hand  upon 
a  number  of  distinguished  men  to  start  and  direct 
them ;  among  whom  we  may  name  Samuel  Newman, 
Nicholas  Tillinghast,  and  that  incomparable  edu- 
cator, Cyrus  Pierce.  £  Mann  discovered  the  latter 
during  one  of  his  tours  of  inspection  in  1837  on 
the  little  island  of  Nantucket,  where  Pierce  had 
for  many  years  been  conducting  schools  which 
Mann  pronounced  the  best  in  Massachusetts,  schools 
in  which  order  and  discipline  were  maintained 
solely  by  an  appeal  to  the  conscience  of  the  scholars. 
At  the  Lexington  Normal  School  Pierce  accom- 
plished wonders.  On  September  14,  1845,  Mann 
wrote  in  his  private  journal:  "I  have  passed  the 
whole  day  in  Mr.  Pierce's  school,  and  a  most  agree- 
able day  it  was.  I  had  already  formed  a  high 
opinion  of  his  talents,  but  he  surpassed  my  ex- 
pectations both  in  the  art  of  teaching  and  in  that 
gift  which  is  the  real  condition  of  success  in  all 
instruction,  —  that  of  gaining  the  confidence  of  his 
pupils.  I  have  seen  nothing  like  it  in  any  other 
school." 


62  HORACE  MANN 

Pierce  was  a  second  Mann,  with  the  same  up- 
rightness, the  same  lofty  ideals,  the  same  devotion 
to  his  work,  in  which  he  wore  himself  out.  "With- 
out him,"  wrote  Barnard,  "the  cause  of  normal 
schools  would  have  been  lost  for  many  years." 
At  the  close  of  each  of  his  Classes  he  repeated  to 
his  scholars:  "Children,  live  for  truth!"  An  old 
:  normal  student  of  Lexington  wrote:  "The  walls 
of  our  school  have  so  often  echoed  these  words 
that  were  they  to  crumble  to  pieces,  we  should 
still  hear,  sounding  above  the  crash  of  their  fall, 
"Live  for  truth!" 

Mann  used  the  same  language:  "There  is  no 
treasure  comparable  to  truth;  there  is  no  such 
source  of  happiness  as  truth;  there  is  no  cure  for 
misfortune  like  truth.  ..." 

Another  of  Mann's  important  works  was  the 
formation  of  school  libraries.  He  took  the  utmost 
pains  to  develop  a  taste  for  reading  and  to  place 
good  books  within  reach  of  all,  even  in  the  remotest 
villages.  "There  is  at  this  day,"  he  wrote,  "only 
a  seventh  part  of  the  population  provided  with 
opportunities  for  reading,  while  for  the  majority, 
who  do  not  know  how  to  read  and  have  no  means  of 
obtaining  books,  it  is  actually  as  if  printing  had 
never  been  invented."  His  joy  was  therefore 
when  he  obtained  from  the  legislature  in 


HORACE  MANN  63 

1842,  a  grant  for  the  purpose  of  purchasing  books 
for  each  school  district.  He  hailed  this  decision 
as  an  event  of  the  utmost  importance,  second  only 
to  that  act  of  1647,  by  which  public  schools  were 
founded  by  the  State.  The  small  sum  of  fifteen 
dollars  was  allotted  to  each  community,  which 
should  subscribe  an  equal  sum  for  the  foundation 
or  maintenance  of  a  local  library.  In  case  the 
children  of  the  district  numbered  twice  or  thrice 
the  minimum  of  sixty,  the  sum  was  to  be  doubled 
or  trebled.  The  school  library,  as  Mann  under- 
stood it,  was  to  be  open  to  parents  as  well  as  to 
children.  "When  the  schoolhouse  is  well  provided 
with  books,"  he  said,  "grown  men  will  again  turn 
their  steps  thither."  He  wished  them  to  be  es- 
tablished everywhere,  even  in  the  smallest  villages; 
"so  that  in  future  there  shall  not  be  a  child  with- 
out a  collection  of  books  at  his  disposal  at  all  times, 
without  cost,  and  within  a  half-hour 's  walk  of 
his  dwelling."  He  considered  reading  as  power-  \ 
ful  an  agent  in  the  world  of  mind  as  steam  in  the 
world  of  matter. 

"Let  a  child  read  and  understand  the  stories 
in  which  great  virtues  are  set  forth,  such,  for  ex- 
ample, as  the  friendship  of  Damon  and  Pythias, 
the  integrity  of  Aristides,  the  fidelity  of  Regulus, 
the  stainless  purity  of  Washington,  the  invincible 


ij 

I 
x 


64  HORACE  MANN 

perseverance  of  Franklin,  and  he  will  think  and 
act  differently  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  Let  a  young 
read  a  popular  treatise  on  astronomy  or  geology, 
and  henceforth  new  skies  will  arch  above  his  head, 
a  new  earth  will  be  spread  beneath  his  feet." 

Mann  devoted  himself  with  his  habitual  energy 
to  the  creation  of  libraries.  To  an  already  enor- 
mous  correspondence  he  added  thousands  of  letters, 
stimulating  their  formation  in  each  of  the  three 
or  four  thousand  schools  in  Massachusetts.  He 
knew  well,  moreover,  that  it  was  not  enough  to  have 
books,  but  that  they  must  also  be  well  chosen. 
Mann  would  have  liked  the  Board  of  Education 
to  draw  up  an  official  list  of  books  which  it  ap- 
proved. But  as  this  proceeding  of  preliminary 
censure  appeared  illiberal  and  alarmed  the  book 
trade,  Governor  Morton  refused  to  sanction  it. 
Mann  was  therefore  obliged  to  confine  himself 
to  persuasion  and  to  indicating  the  books  he 
preferred.  He  distrusted  works  of  fiction  and, 
what  is  more  surprising,  historical  works.  Doubt- 
less, a  nation  as  young  as  America,  a  nation  almost 
without  a  history,  has  less  need  than  others  to 
study  the  past;  but  what  indisposed  Mann  es- 
pecially toward  history  was  the  complacency  with 
which  it  recounts  wars  of  conquest  and  sanguinary 
battles,  and  the  robberies  and  rapacities  of  kings 


HORACE  MANN  65 

and  emperors,  with  all  the  moral  atrocities  and 
abominations  of  an  earlier  time,  which  in  his  opinion 
were  to  be  attributed  rather  to  the  ignorance  than 
to  the  perversity  of  mankind.  In  order  that  history 
might  be  studied  with  profit  by  children,  he  would 
have  it  rewritten  and  in  another  spirit  —  "What 
a  series  of  thefts  and  rapines  is  the  history  of  the 
past!" 

What,  then,  were  the  books  recommended  by 
him?  They  were  all  books  useful  to  morals,  such 
as  biographies  of  great  men,  stories  which  tend 
to  develop  "courage  and  noble  sentiments,"  as 
well  as  practical  treatises  on  hygiene  and  popular 
science,  "such  as  are  suitable  for  active  men  in 
a  poor  country  whose  sterile  soil  needs  science  to 
render  it  fertile."  Mann  thought,  with  reason, 
that  the  people  needed  a  new  literature,  and  in  order 
to  embody  his  ideas,  he  negotiated  with  the  book- 
sellers of  Boston  to  publish  two  series  of  books  in 
cheap  editions,  one  in  18mo  for  children,  the  other 
in  12mo  for  adults;  and  in  preparing  them,  he 
called  to  his  assistance  the  most  competent  writers 
of  his  time,  such  as  Washington  Irving,  the  novelist, 
Edward  Everett,  the  moralist,  George  B.  Emerson, 
and  others.  What  he  desired  was  a  form  of  litera- 
ture as  simple  as  it  was  elevated,  and  especially 
adapted  to  the  capacity  of  children. 


66  HORACE  MANN 

"In  most  of  the  reading-books  in  use,  one  finds," 
he  says,  "  moral  aphorisms  in  which  great  thinkers 
have  embodied  their  life-long  experience  and  re- 
flection.; maxims  in  which  philosophers  have 
condensed  the  loftiest  scientific  truths;  and  these 
are  offered  as  early  lessons  to  children,  as  if,  because 
they  are  born  after  Bacon  and  Franklin,  they  are 
at  once  capable  of  understanding  them." 

Mann's  pedagogic  work  was  immense,  and  we 
will  not  attempt  to  give  an  account  here  of  all 
his  reforms,  of  all  the  various  measures  which  he 
carried  out  or  participated  in:  including  weekly 
lectures  for  teachers  of  both  sexes;  the  creation 
in  Boston  of  a  model  school  which  was  to  serve 
in  the  matter  of  architecture,  furniture,  books, 
methods,  and  masters  as  a  pattern  to  all  the  others ; 
the  reunion  in  one  central  school  of  several  small 
schools  located  in  sparsely  populated  districts, 
for  the  benefit  of  the  older  scholars  only,  to  whom 
the  distance  would  be  no  obstacle;  methods  of 
obligatory  instruction  in  vocal  music  and  drawing ; 
annual  lectures  to  teachers  to  be  given  in  each 
county  during  the  vacations,  a  species  of  travelling 
normal  school  such  as  has  always  had  a  great 
vogue  in  the  United  States. 

For  the  accomplishment  of  his  purposes  Mann 
did  not  neglect  the  most  trifling  means.  In  1840 


HORACE   MANN  67 

he  conceived  the  idea  of  rekindling  the  zeal  of 
the  country  districts  by  drawing  up  a  set  of  tables, 
in  which  the  Massachusetts  towns  were  classified 
according  to  the  importance  of  the  sacrifices  they 
had  made  for  the  support  of  public  education. 
This  graduated  table,  as  he  called  it,  was,  he  said 
himself,  his  stroke  of  genius.  The  publicity  he 
gave  to  it  aroused  to  an  extraordinary  degree 
the  emulation  of  the  various  towns.  In  a  similar 
manner,  he  sought  to  stimulate  the  zeal  of  the  school 
committees,  whose  functions  had  hitherto  been 
entirely  gratuitous,  by  having  a  small  indem- 
nity assigned  them,  sufficient  at  least  to  defray 
their  travelling  expenses.  Mann  not  only  devoted 
his  time  and  strength  to  the  cause  of  education, 
he  also  expended  for  it  a  part  of  his  emoluments 
as  secretary,  which  consisted  of  about  $1500, 
"a  miserable  salary/'  as  it  is  called  by  Ameri- 
cans to-day.  His  disinterestedness  and  generosity 
equalled  his  zeal;  nothing  was  awarded  for  the 
purchase  of  books,  for  his  correspondence,  or  the 
expense  of  his  lecture  tours  during  four  months  of 
the  year;  he  furnished  at  his  own  cost  geograph- 
ical maps  to  the  schools;  he  likewise  undertook 
his  European  trip  at  his  own  expense.  No  sacri- 
fice was  too  great  for  the  furtherance  of  his  aim; 
pecuniary  considerations  appealed  to  him  very 


68  HORACE  MANN 

slightly;  he  was  astonished  to  find  all  his  friends, 
with  the  exception  of  Channing,  expressing  curi- 
osity as  to  the  amount  of  the  salary  he  received. 
In  1849  he  announced  that  he  made  no  claim  to 
being  indemnified  for  the  expenses  he  incurred 
in  the  discharge  of  his  duties.  "From  the  day 
when  I  accepted  the  office  of  secretary,"  he  said, 
"I  considered  myself  responsible  for  the  success 
of  the  undertaking,  and  were  I  to  expend  for  it 
all  my  means,  my  health,  my  life,  —  nay,  a  hundred 
lives  if  I  had  them,  —  I  should  hold  that  the 
triumph  of  the  cause  far  outweighed  all  these 
sacrifices." 

But  in  spite  of  his  protestations,  a  vote  was 
passed  allotting  him  an  indemnity  of  $2000; 
George  B.  Emerson  saying,  "It  has  always 
seemed  to  me,  that  having  made  a  great  personal 
sacrifice  in  accepting  the  functions  of  secretary, 
Mann  was  less  bound  than  any  other  citizen  to 
contribute  from  his  private  purse  to  the  success 
of  the  undertaking." 

But  this  was  what  he  was  in  the  habit  of  doing, 
and  what  would  he  not  have  done  to  bring  about 
the  fulfilment  of  his  dream,  —  he  who  had  said 
from  the  beginning  that  he  approached  his  task  "in 
the  spirit  of  martyrdom."  The  actual  reward 
for  him  was  in  the  results  he  had  brought  about, 


HORACE  MANN  69 

and  which  an  American  writer  sums  up  in  these 
words : 

"  During  these  twelve  years  of  labor,  the  State 
aid  granted  to  public  schools  was  doubled;  more) 
than  $2,000,000  were  expended  in  improving 
the  condition  of  school-houses;  the  salaries  of 
teachers  were  raised  62  per  cent  for  men  and  511 
per  cent  for  women,  while  at  the  same  time  the 
number  of  women  teachers  was  increased  54  per 
cent  (3591  in  1837,  5510  in  1848);  a  month  was 
added  to  the  average  duration  of  the  school  year; 
the  proportion  of  private  to  public  schools  dwindled 
from  75  to  36  per  cent;  the  supervision  of  the 
school-  committees  became  more  general  and  more 
continuous;  three  normal  schools  were  established, 
which  sent  out  several  hundreds  of  teachers,  whose 
influence  was  to  make  itself  felt  in  every  part  of 
tlje  State." 

Politics  alternated  with  pedagogy  in  the  varied 
career  of  Horace  Mann.  In  1848  a  seat  became 
vacant  in  the  national  Congress  at  Washington 
through  the  death*  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  former 
President  of  the  United  States,  who  was  repre- 
sentative from  Massachusetts.  His  succession  was 
offered  to  Mann,  who  was  elected  by  a  large  major- 
ity, his  fellow-citizens  thus  showing  their  gratitude 
for  the  services  he  had  rendered  the  State. 


70  HORACE  MANN 

He  accepted,  abandoning  his  previous  functions 
not  without  regret,  but  with  the  consciousness 
that  as  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education  he 
had  fulfilled  his  whole  duty;  that  the  impulse  had 
been  given;  that  education  was  advancing  with 
rapid  strides;  and  that,  in  short,  the  work  being 
almost  accomplished,  he  could  henceforth  be  spared. 

In  18@  he  was  reflected — a  great  triumph,  in 
view  of  the  violent  campaign  directed  against 
him  by  the  champions  of  slavery  and  sustained 
by  the  great  authority  of  Daniel  Webster,  then 
Secretary  of  State.  Mann  had  distinguished  him- 
self in  the  debates  in  Congress  by  his  eloquence 
and  zeal  in  behalf  of  all  measures  tending  toward 
the  abolition  of  slavery.1  He  had  fought  against 
its  further  extension,  expressing  himself  in  these 
words:  " Rather  than  suffer  it  to  invade  other 
States,  I  should  prefer  the  rupture  of  the  Union, 
civil  war,  even  servile  war."x 

The  four  years  during  which  Mann  sat  in  Congress, 
always  active  and  always  eloquent,  may  be  counted 
among  the  most  brilliant  pages  in  his  career;  but 
they  are  beside  our  subject,  and  we  must  now 


1  In  a  debate  which  lasted  twenty-one  days,  he  defended 
three  abolitionists  who  had  carried  away  fifty  slaves  in  order 
to  liberate  them.  He  ended  by  obtaining  the  acquittal  of"  his 
clients.  See  Speeches  on  Slavery,  1852. 


HORACE  MANN  71 

return  to  the  pedagogue  who,  four  years  later, 
reverted  to  his  chosen  mission  and  voluntarily 
assumed  the  presidency  of  Antioch  College,  there 
to  display  the  qualities  of  an  admirable,  practical 
educator. 


Ill 

HORACE  MANN'S  PHILOSOPHY 

I 

LET  us  pause  in  the  narrative  of  Mann's  life 
and  educational  work  —  as  he  himself  paused  during 
the  four  years  of  his  political  life  —  and  attempt 
to  define  briefly  those  principles  and  general  ideas 
which  constantly  guided  his  efforts. 

A  man  of  action  before  all,  a  nature  swayed  by 
inspiration  rather  than  reflection,  Mann  had  not 
the  leisure  and  lacked,  moreover,  the  power  of 
abstraction  necessary  for  constructing  a  philosophy 
of  his  own.  In  his  agitated  and  feverish  life  he 
found  no  time  to  condense  his  thoughts  or  to  write 
learned  treatises.  Undoubtedly  he  wrote  a  great 
deal,  as  he  spoke  a  great  deal,  but  all  his  writings, 
whether  reports,  lectures,  or  speeches,  —  we  were 
about  to  say  sermons,  —  were  primarily  action, 
and  bore  the  stamp  of  the  orator.  He  had  no 
personal  philosophy  beyond  an  ardent  faith  in 
progress  and  the  indefinite  perfectibility  of  the 
human  race.  The  critical  spirit  is  not  that  which 
generally  distinguishes  American  thinkers.  The 

72 


HORACE  MANN  73 

spirit  of  analysis,  moreover,  is  rarely  allied  with 
enthusiasm,  and  enthusiasm  was  the  dominant  note 
in  Mann's  intelligence.  Let  us  not  ask  from  him, 
therefore,  a  coordinate  whole,  a  system  of  clear 
and  precise  views  upon  human  nature.  His  psy- 
chology remained  always  confused  and  inexact. 
It  sets  out  with  a  confession  of  impotence:  "The 
nature  of  mind  is  impenetrable."  Mann  accepts 
the  most  daring  theories;  as,  for  example,  that 
liberty  consists  of  one  thing  only,  —  the  choice  be- 
tween good  and  evil.  The  choice  made  once  for 
all  between  obedience  or  disobedience  to  the  divine 
law,  "the  law  seizes  us  and  flings  us  high  or  low, 
raises  us  or  lowers  us  with  irresistible  power." 
In  other  words,  one  moment  —  one  only  —  of 
freedom  is  granted  us,  then  we  bow  beneath  the 
yoke  of  a  kind  of  fatality.  This  is  to  simplify  too 
much,  and  to  solve  somewhat  lightly,  the  problem 
of  the  complex  play  of  human  will  and  action. 

Where  Mann  was  not  mistaken  was  in  affirm- 
ing that  there  are  laws,  —  without,  however,  know- 
ing precisely  what  they  are,  —  laws  presiding  over 
the  formation  of  minds  as  imperious  as  those  which 
preside  over  the  production  of  flowers  and  fruits. 
And  Mann  understood  thoroughly  that  it  was 
necessary  to  know  these  laws  in  order  to  establish 
solidly  the  foundations  of  education.  He  knew 


74  HORACE  MANN 

that  pedagogy  must  rest  on  a  philosophical  doctrine. 
"How  can  we  conduct  education,"  he  said,  "with- 
out having  conceived  a  theory  of  the  mind?" 
Not  being  able  to  frame  for  himself  this  theory 
which  he  sought,  he  borrowed  it.  He  found  in 
his  path,  so  to  speak,  the  philosophy  of  an  English 
writer,  George  Combe,  and  adopted  it;  he  made 
it  his  own,  somewhat  as  the  spiritualistic  philosopher 
Boyer-Collard,  according  to  Laine,  having  found 
and  purchased  one  day  at  a  book-stall  on  the  quays 
of  the  Seine,  the  works  of  the  Scotchman  Thomas 
Reid,  founded  thereon  the  official  French  philos- 
ophy of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Who  was  George  Combe?  A  man  of  heart 
assuredly,  who  merited  the  sympathy  of  his  great 
friend  in  America.  They  had  made  each  other's 
acquaintance  in  Boston,  whither  Combe  had  gone  in 
1838  to  deliver  a  course  of  lectures.  Mann  heard 
him  and  was  won  over  at  once  to  his  views.  They 
formed  a  close  friendship  which  was  severed  only 
by  death  and  was  kept  alive  by  an  active  corre- 
spondence. Combe  said  of  Mann:  "He  was  a  de- 
lightful companion  and  friend;  of  all  the  men 
I  met  in  Boston,  he  was  the  best."  While  Mann, 
on  his  side,  wrote  to  Combe:  "There  is  no  man  of 
whom  I  think  oftener  than  of  you,  or  who  has 
done  me  so  much  good  as  you." 


HORACE  MANN  75 

Combe  had  published  in  1828  a  volume  entitled 
The  Constitution  of  Man.  Mann  speaks  of  it 
with  extraordinary  enthusiasm  and  some  naivete. 
He  regards  it  as  a  "masterpiece  of  thought." 
Combe's  philosophy  seems  to  him  destined  to  work 
in  the  moral  sciences  a  revolution  analogous  to 
that  of  Bacon  in  the  domain  of  physical  science; 
and  carrying  hyperbole  to  its  utmost  limits,  he 
exclaims:  "Just  as  there  could  be  but  one  dis- 
covery of  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  or  of  the 
solar  system,  so  there  could  be  but  one  author 
of  The  Constitution  of  Man"  1 

George  Combe  hardly  merited  such  emphatic 
eulogiums.  His  doctrine  was,  after  all,  but  a  poor 
and  mediocre  philosophy,  in  which  the  author 
developed  in  a  cold  and  prosaic  style  the  narrow, 
meagre  psychological  system  of  Gall  and  the  phre- 
nologists. It  is  easy,  however,  to  account  for  Mann's 
genuine  devotion  to  the  ideas  of  the  English  psy- 
chologist. There  was  a  certain  intellectual  affinity 
between  them.  Combe  was  not  one  of  those  con- 

1  George  Combe  published  in  1840  another  work  which  also 
aroused  Mann's  admiration:  "Your  Moral  Philosophy  is  worthy 
of  your  Constitution  of  Man,  without  being  equal  to  it,  which 
would  be  impossible."  Mann's  sincerity  is  proved  by  the  fact 
that  he  could  speak  disagreeable  truths  to  his  friend,  as,  for 
example,  on  his  publishing  a  Journal  of  Education  which  Mann 
thought  unworthy  of  him. 


76  HORACE  MANN 

templative  philosophers  who  confine  themselves 
to  the  region  of  pure  speculation ;  he  presented  his 
psychology  rather  as  an  introduction  to  the  science 
and  art  of  education;  hence  his  essays  in  the  region 
of  a  higher  and  more  analytical  philosophy  adapt 
themselves  admirably  to  the  instructive  views 
of  Mann.  He  was  also  a  friend  to  popular  edu- 
cation; and  his  writings  on  pedagogy  were  not 
devoid  of  merit,  since  twenty  years  after  his  death 
they  were  still  held  in  honor  among  his  country- 
men. /That  which  chiefly  attracted  Mann  in  his 
system  must  have  been,  first,  his  attempts  to  frame 
national  moral  laws  for  the  government  of  man- 
kind, —  laws  to  which  it  was  only  necessary  to  con- 
form to  attain  wisdom;  and,  secondly,  his  recom- 
mendatjon  of  care  of  the  body  no  less  than  of  the 
mind.  w~In  his  system  physical  health  was  a  con- 
dition of  the  soul's  health,  a  principle  of  morality; 
proper  food  and  clothing  being,  according  to  his 
view,  as  essential  elements  in  the  happiness  of 
mankind  as  books  and  lessons.  The  question 
of  alimentation  had  always  been  of  the  highest 
importance  in  Mann's  estimation.  "It  is  a  great 
misfortune,"  he  said,  "that  the  quantity  and  quality 
of  food  which  a  people  consume  cannot  be  deter- 
mined by  some  fixed  rule;"  and  elsewhere:  "As 
I  grow  older  and,  I  hope,  wiser,  I  am  conscious 


HORACE  MANN  77 

that  the  contempt  I  formerly  professed  for  the 
stomach  and  the  lungs  has  gradually  changed 
into  a  sort  of  respect  for  these  bodily  organs. 
They  are  not  Dii  majores,  but  Dii  minores, 
without  whose  aid  the  higher  faculties  of  the 
brain  are  as  disabled  as  a  sea-captain  would  be 
who  attempted  to  navigate  his  ship  without 
sailors." 

There^  was  nothing  in  Combe's  system,  even 
to  its  fundamental  idea  of  the  cerebral  localiza- 
tion of  the  various  faculties  of  the  mind,  but  was 
of  a  nature  to  attract  Mann.1  Freed  from  what 
savors  of  charlatanism,  such*  as  the  claim  that  the 
bumps  on  the  cranium  are  the  outward  mani- 
festation of  mental  qualities  phrenology  contains, 
a  kernel  of  truth  which  partly  justifies  the  success 
it  obtained  with  Mann  and  his  friend.2  It  teaches 
that  the  human  faculties  are  so  many  distinct 
forces  which  can  be  developed  by  exercise,  by  an 
appropriate  activity.  This  is  what  Mann  never 
ceased  to  repeat,  being  convinced  in  advance  of 

1  Mann  is  not  the  only  distinguished  man  over  whom  G.  Combe 
exerted  an  influence.     Mr.   John  Morley  has  shown  in  one  of 
his  books,  The  Life  of  Richard  Cobden,  that  the  illustrious  econ- 
omist had  also  been  influenced  by  him  (1881). 

2  Phrenology  was  the  fashion  in  America  at  this  time.     Nearly 
all  Mann's  friends,  Pierce,  George  B.  Emerson,  Dr.  Howe,  were 
fervent  adherents  of  it. 


! 


78  HORACE  MANN 

a  doctrine  which  places  man's  destiny  in  his  own 
hands,  so  to  speak,  and  proclaims  the  omnipotence 
of  education,  since  it  is  able  to  insure  and  regulate 
the  development  of  all  the  faculties  by  means  of 
the  activity  it  imparts  to  them. 

When  Mann  essayed  himself,  following  Combe, 
to  define  what  he  calls  "the  laws  of  the  mind/'  "the 
laws  of  God,"  he  indicated  but  two  such  laws,  which, 
according  to  him,  should  be  the  guides  of  the  human 
mind. 

The  first  is  the  law  of  symmetry,  which  demands 
that  all  our  faculties  should  be  developed  in  har- 
mony and  with  perfect  balance,  each  of  them 
growing  stronger  through  the  support  of  the  others. 
Hitherto,  nations,  like  individuals,  have  exaggerated 
certain  qualities  at  the  expense  of  others;  thus 
the  perfectly  well-balanced  man  is  nowhere  to  be 
found. 

The  second  law  is  that  our  faculties  are  strength- 
ened by  exercise  and  perish  from  inaction.  "How 
many  forces  are  suffered  to  lie  dormant  which 
gradually  become  extinct;  on  the  other  hand, 
how  many  benefits  and  miracles  might  be  wrought 
for  mankind  by  prolonged  exercise  and  continuous 
effort !  Witness  Franklin,  the  good  and  great 
Franklin."  Mann  had  early  severed  his  connection 
with  all  religious  bodies  to  become  an  adherent 


HORACE  MANN  79 

of  natural  religion  only.1  He  was  a  Puritan  in 
some  respects,  but  a  Puritan  without  theology. 

He  complained  that  natural  religion  was  not 
understood  in  his  day,  nor  its  power  appreciated. 
"It  is/7  he  affirmed,  "as  superior  to  revealed  reli- 
gion as  a  personal  experience  is  to  a  vague  hearsay. " 
He  doubtless  recognized  the  elevating  influence 
which  established  religions  have  exercised  in  the 
past,  "in  guiding  generations  of  mankind  through 
the  darkness  of  the  world;"  but  he  hoped  for  and 
desired  the  speedy  coming  of  a  religion  founded 
upon  reason,  freed  from  outworn  dogmas  and 
impenetrable  mysteries.  "The  hour  has  come  when 
the  light  of  natural  religion  shall  be  to  that  of  re- 
vealed religion  what  the  blaze  of  the  rising  sun  is 
to  the  pale  gleam  of  the  stars." 

He  was  religious,  then,  profoundly  religious; 
a  vague  mysticism  floats  over  expressions  like 
these:  "Soul  speaks  to  soul,  words  and  even 
thoughts  are  merely  accessory."  Or  again:  "The 
spiritual  essence  of  man  contemplates  directly 
the  spiritual  essence  of  the  universe."  But  from 
this  religious  spirit  all  dogma,  all  formal  Credo,  is 

1  Let  us  add,  however,  that  he  often  spoke  as  a  Christian,  in 
a  spirit  of  worship  or  at  least  of  reverence  for  Christ.  He  said 
before  his  death  to  his  wife  and  children :  "  If  ever  you  are  per- 
plexed as  to  what  you  ought  to  do,  ask  yourselves  what  Jesus 
Christ  would  have  done  in  your  place." 


80  HORACE  MANN 

banished.  Belief  in  an  all-powerful  creator,  in 
a  God  of  goodness,  and  in  an  immortality  of  happi- 
ness alone  survive  in  his  religion. 

The  immortality  of  the  soul  was  for  Mann  an 
undisputed  article  of  faith,  but  he  looked  upon 
it  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  infinite  joy  re- 
served for  the  elect.  In  his  writings,  in  his  dis- 
courses, he  unceasingly  evokes  the  idea  of  the 
future  life,  not  only  with  hope,  but  with  certainty; 
and  although  he  scarcely  believed  in  school  rewards, 
—  any  more  than  in  punishments, — he  believed 
firmly  in  the  rewards  of  another  life  and  desired 
a  heaven  for  all. 

"Why  have  not  all  men  entered  this  life  virtuous, 
to  be  transported  as  by  a  lightning  flash  to  the 
felicity  of  the  next?"  "We  must  know  how  to 
bear  suffering,  to  submit  without  comprehending 
it  in  expectation  of  the  compensations  of  eternity. 
The  divine  law  is  eternal;  it  follows  us  in  this 
world  and  the  next,  making  of  the  two  but  one 
world,  and  reducing  death  simply  to  an  incident 
of  life.  Our  virtuous  and  criminal  actions  will 
live  always  in  their  good  and  evil  consequences: 
how  much  more,  then,  shall  the  agent  himself 
live!" 

And  with  the  emphasis  habitual  to  his  eloquence 
he  adds : 


HORACE  MANN  81 

"A  grain  of  wheat  buried  with  the  mummy 
of  Sesostris  may  germinate  anew  to-day  and  unite 
the  nineteenth  century  with  the  remotest  antiquity. 
Can,  then,  the  soul  of  the  great  king  be  dissolved 
into  nothingness?" 

We  have  said  that  Mann's  psychology  is  uncer- 
tain and  vague.  He  has,  nevertheless,  attempted 
to  sketch  in  broad  outlines  this  psychology,  which 
is  rather  a  system  of  morality. 

It  is,  in  fact,  the  moral  consciousness  and  the 
sense  of  responsibility  which  Mann  places  in  the 
first  rank  among  the  higher  faculties  of  man.  Im- 
mediately after  these,  he  places  —  even  before 
the  family  affections  —  the  social  and  sympathetic 
faculties,  benevolence  toward  others,  philanthropy. 
In  other  words,  man  is  above  all  a  creature  of  duty, 
subject  to  moral  law ;  in  the  next  place,  he  is  a  being 
devoted  to  others.  Mann  neither  sought  nor  found 
the  opportunity  for  becoming  a  martyr,  but  in 
another  age  he  would  have  been  capable  of  it  in 
the  service  of  humanity  or  to  attest  his  social 
faith. 

"The  history  of  the  heroes  of  antiquity  and  of 
the  martyrs  of  Christianity,  although  their  dust 
has  been  scattered  for  centuries,  arouses  in  us 
such  transports  of  admiration  that  we  long  to  be 
in  their  place ;  and  this  passion  raises  us  to  such 


82  HORACE  MANN 

heights  that  the  most  terrible  death  for  a  sacred 
cause  appears  to  us  as  lovely  and  desirable  as 
the  young  bride  to  her  bridegroom." 

And  after  exalting  these  high  and  noble  aspira- 
tions of  human  nature,  Mann  brands  with  pitiless 
sternness  the  egotistic  sentiments,  the  lower  propen- 
sities, which  make  of  man,  when  they  rule  him,  "a 
ferocious  beast,  a  bird  of  prey."  "  Neither  in  the 
den  of  the  lion  nor  in  the  vulture 's  eyry  do  there 
exist  brigands  comparable  to  those  men  who  are 
dominated  by  the  insatiable  appetites  of  selfishness." 

Intelligence,  strictly  so  called,  the  intelligence 
which  reasons,  which  analyzes,  which  decides  dryly 
and  coldly,  is  not  Mann's  affair.  He  deliberately 
subordinates  the  reasoning  being  to  the  being  of 
sentiment;  and  it  is  precisely  nere  that  we  must 
seek  the  secret  of  his  strength,  of  the  sovereign 
power  which  his  inspired  eloquence  exerted  over 
his  contemporaries.  He  was,  above  all,  a  man  of 
heart,  —  one  who  surrendered  himself  to  the  in- 
stincts of  a  noble  nature,  who  felt  before  thinking, 
and  whose  sentiments,  brimful  of  the  sap  of  spring, 
overflowed  and  bloomed  with  life,  youth,  and  fresh- 
ness/; How  wide  is  the  gulf  between  this  sensitive 
soul,  sentimental,  even  quick,  to  enthusiastic  beliefs, 
faithful  without  reserve  to  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  human  nature,  and  the  " Intellectuals" 


HORACE  MANN  83 

of  our  day,  whose  destructive  criticism  would 
shatter,  if  we  listened  to  them,  our  faith  in  hu- 
manity and  its  eternal  aspirations  !  How  he  would 
have  suffered,  how  startled  as  well  as  wounded  his 
conscience  would  have  been,  could  he  have  known 
to  what  a  frenzy  of  negation  an  abuse  of  the  analytic 
spirit  was  to  lead  some  of  the  men  who  followed  him  ! 

We  analyze  to-day  the  idea  of  patriotism,  and  it 
melts  away  to  give  place  to  the  chimera  of  inter- 
nationalism; we  analyze  the  idea  of  property,  and 
it  is  reduced  to  collectivism;  we  analyze  the 
idea  of  God  and  are  led  to  atheism;  we  analyze 
the  idea  of  the  family,  and  behold  indifferent  and 
ungrateful  sons;  we  analyze  the  idea  of  duty,  and 
the  moral  law  becomes  a  mere  word  devoid  of 
meaning. 

Amid  these  divagations  of  an  overstimulated 
intellectualism,  Mann  would  have  appealed  more 
forcibly  than  ever  to  the  primal  instincts  of  nature 
in  defence  of  things  sacred  in  his  eyes.  He  would 
have  reiterated  that  the  ideal  of  the  thinker  is 
to  combine  with  the  light  of  pure  thought  that 
ardor  and  warmth  of  sentiment  which  are  also, 
in  themselves,  a  light. 

"If  the  best  wines  are  those  for  which  the  grapes 
have  ripened  on  the  slopes  of  a  volcano,  so  the 
best  thoughts  are  those  that  spring  from  a  clear 


84  HORACE  MANN 

brain  warmed  by  a  large  heart."  Mann  always 
subordinated  intellectual  to  moral  culture.  In 
one  of  his  reports  he  wrote :  — 

"How  many  lessons,  recitations,  and  examinations 
we  require  for  the  development  of  the  mind !  What 
a  multitude  of  books  must  be  read  and  reread! 
But  for  the  formation  of  character  and  right  feeling, 
what  poverty  of  instruction!  What  do  we  teach 
children  in  regard  to  their  reciprocal  duties,  the 
affection  which  brothers  and  sisters  owe  each  other? 
What  as  to  filial  piety,  as  to  the  obligations  of  men 
of  wealth  toward  those  less  fortunate  than  them- 
selves? How  do  we  teach  them  to  avoid  the 
passions  of  pride  and  greed,  of  envy  and  revenge? 
What  as  to  the  countless  calamities  resulting  from 
drink  and  gambling?  Does  arithmetic  teach  them 
the  folly  of  investing  in  lotteries?  Does  history 
insist  strongly  enough  upon  the  criminal  character 
of  nine-tenths  of  the  wars  it  records,  and  upon 
the  horrible  sufferings  they  have  brought  upon 
the  human  race?  When  teaching  of  such  im- 
portance as  this  is  neglected,  children  may  indeed 
become  good  grammarians  and  ready  reckoners, 
but  will  they  be  just,  good,  and  benevolent  men?" 

Thus  Mann's  pedagogy,  like  his  psychology,  con- 
sisted chiefly  of  morality.  "He  who  does  the 
most  good  to  his  fellow-men,"  he  said,  "is  the 


HORACE  MANN  89 

and  flowery  as  spring  in  a  New  England  meadow. 
It  was  even  too  much  so,  perhaps.  His  ardent 
imagination  not  only  inspired  him  with  prophetic 
visions,  great  conceptions  of  the  future:  it  also 
enriched  his  thought  and  style  with  an  excessive 
wealth  of  imagery. 

He  himself  acknowledged  —  and  it  was  a  defect 
in  his  own  eyes  —  athe  profusion  and  redundance 
of  his  metaphors.  "  And  he  added  gracefully: 
"This  fault  would  perhaps  be  forgiven  me  if  one- 
knew  what  trouble  I  daily  take  to  refuse  to  my 
tongue  and  pen  the  flood  of  metaphors  which 
invade  my  imagination."  We  can  the  more  easily 
forgive  him  this  poetic  exuberance  in  consideration 
of  its  having  greatly  contributed  to  the  success 
of  his  undertakings.  He  neither  wrote  nor  spoke 
for  the  learned  and  literary;  he  addressed  popular 
audiences  ;  and  he  was  forced,  in  order  to  be  under- 
stood, to  multiply  his  arguments  and  develop 
his  ideas  somewhat  diffusely.  He  was  obliged, 
in  order  that  he  might  dominate  the  minds  of  his 
readers  and  hearers,  to  be  prodigal  of  metaphors 
and  figures  of  speech.  How  many  brilliant  pages 
we  could  quote,  were  it  not  that  their  force  would 
be  weakened,  their  brilliancy  dimmed,  by  the 
attempt  to  condense  them!  None  of  the  great 
ideas  which  constitute  the  modern  spirits  were 


86  HORACE  MANN 

tion  of  his  speeches,  reveal  what  we  might  call 
a  spontaneous  classic  culture.  He  had  a  special 
taste  for  the  Latin  authors  and  quotes  them  as 
constantly  as  a  humanist  might  do.  He  tells  us 
that  in  his  youth,  if  he  chanced  to  meet  a  young 
girl  who  was  a  Latin  scholar,  he  regarded  her  as 
a  sort  of  divinity. 

Nevertheless,  the  utilitarian  and  practical  ten- 
dencies, suitable  to.  a  good  American,  reveal  them- 
selves in  the  spirit  of  this  humanist.  "What 
satisfactory  argument  can  we  invoke,"  he  asks, 
"to  show  why  algebra,  a  science  which  not  one 
man  in  a  thousand  has  occasion  to  use  in  the  affairs 
of  life,  should  be  studied  by  more  than  2300  scholars 
in  the  Massachusetts  schools,  whereas  bookkeeping, 
which  all,  even  workmen,  require,  is  only  taught 
to  about  half  that  number  ? l  For  farmers  and 
road-makers,  why  give  geometry  the  preference 
over  land-surveying  ?  And  why,  among  those  who 
devote  themselves  to  the  pursuit  of  intellectual 
truth,  are  the  students  of  rhetoric  twice  as  numerous 
as  those  of  logic?" 

No  one  has  expressed  more  forcibly  the  law 
of  solidarity,  which  unites  successive  generations 
one  to  the  other,  and  makes  universal  education 

1  At  Antioch  Mann  struggled  for  months  to  obtain  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  professor  of  bookkeeping. 


HORACE  MANN  87 

a  debt  which  the  nation  must  discharge  by  assum- 
ing the  whole  expense  of  maintaining  schools. 
This  idea  he  formulates  in  three  propositions:  — 

"1.  Successive  generations  of  mankind  taken  col- 
lectively constitute  one  great  community. 

"2.  All  the  wealth  which  this  community  pos- 
sesses it  owes  to  all  its  children  with  a  view  to 
providing  them  with  an  education  adequate  to  pro- 
tect them  from  poverty  and  vice,  and  prepare  them 
worthily  to  perform  their  civic  and  social  duties. 

U3.  The  successive  holders  of  this  wealth  are 
merely  its  trustees,  bound  by  the  most  sacred 
obligations  to  execute  their  mandate  faithfulty ;  and 
to  divert  this  wealth  from  its  true  object,  the 
education  of  the  young,  is  as  great  a  crime,  indeed 
a  greater  one,  than  similar  breach  of  faith  with 
contemporaries . ' ' 

Convinced,  as  he  was,  of  the  necessity  of  education, 
Mann  seems  to  have  hesitated  for  a  time  in  regard 
to  the  question  of  compulsory  school  attendance. 
He  was  not  by  nature  inclined  toward  restraint 
or  the  rigor  of  any  law  whatever,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, expected  everything  from  the  charms  which 
enlightenment  must  have  for  souls  plunged  in 
the  darkness  of  ignorance. 

"Let  the  intelligent  man,"  he  said,  "visit  the 
ignorant  daily,  as  the  oculist  visits  the  blind  and 


88  HORACE  MANN 

removes  the  scales  from  their  eyes  until  the  living 
sense  opens  once  more  to  the  living  light.  Let  the 
zealous  man  enter  into  communion  with  those  torpid 
from  indifference,  and  melt  the  ice  in  which  they  are 
entombed.  Let  the  love  of  childhood,  the  love 
of  country,  the  dictates  of  reason,  the  sentiment 
of  religious  responsibility,  unite  in  a  wise  blending 
of  tenderness  and  severity,  until  the  grim,  hard 
mass  of  ignorance,  avarice,  and  prejudice  gives 
way  before  the  combined  action  of  their  heat 
and  light." 

Let  us  wait,  in  other  words,  until  the  people 
desire  education  before  offering  it  to  them.  But 
is  it  not  a  mistake  to  let  oneself  be  misled  by  the 
illusions  of  a  chimerical  optimism?  Does  not 
history  prove  that  in  order  that  a  people  shall 
seek  instruction,  they  must  be  forced  to  it  ?  Mann, 
in  fact,  speedily  renounced  his  error;  by  the  year 
1847  he  had  completely  changed  his  opinion,  and 
warned  by  experience  of  the  indifference  and 
carelessness  of  parents,  he  recognized  the  need  for 
enforcing  school  attendance. 

Mann  was  not  merely  a  powerful  orator  whose 
heart  animated  his  voice  and  kindled  his  accents, 
and  whose  broad  mind  overflowed  with  ideas: 
he  was  also  a  skilled  and  persuasive  writer.  It 
has  been  said  of  his  style  that  it  was  as  brilliant 


HORACE  MANN  85 

master  of  masters  and  has  learned  the  art  of 
arts." 

Mann's  countrymen  have  often  called  him  a 
radical,  even  a  revolutionary;  to  us  he  appears, 
on  the  contrary,  to  have  been  a  wise  and  prudent 
spirit,  a  moderate  opportunist  in  every  respect, 
except  in  his  speech,  which  was  overemphatic 
and  at  times  slightly  declamatory.  He  knew 
how  to  make  necessary  concessions  and  to  accept 
compromises.  He  understood  that  by  violently 
attacking  tradition  and  established  customs  one 
runs  the  risk  of  losing  everything.  If,  in  the 
last  years  of  his  life,  he  joined  an  organized  church, 
it  was  because  he  regarded  this  step  as  useful  to 
his  designs  and  necessary  to  the  success  of  the 
cause  of  which  he  had  constituted  himself  the 
champion;  the  Christian  Union,  of  which  he  be- 
came a  member,  being  the  only  door  open  to  liberal 
ideas  in  the  West. 

Mann  had  had  no  regular  teachers  before  the 
age  of  twenty;  he  had  been,  above  all,  the  pupil 
of  nature.  We  might  assume  that  an  education 
of  this  sort,  a  chance  education,  as  it  were,  would 
have  left  something  disorderly  in  his  mind;  but 
it  was  not  so.  Aside  from  certain  flights  of  the 
imagination,  Mann's  is  a  classic  mind.  His  taste 
for  lofty  language,  the  large  and  ample  construe- 


90  HORACE  MANN 

unknown  to  Mann,  and  he  expressed  them  with 
equal  vigor  and  poetic  feeling.  Of  science,  he  says 
that  it  invests  us  with  a  sort  of_j?jreajJ3£e.  power, 
and  that  "man's  dominion  over  the  earth  spreads 
in  proportion  to  his  knowledge."  Of  the  beauty 
of  nature,  he  says  that  she  opened  up  to  us  a  world  of 
marvels:  " Dazzling  flowers  on  the  great  lap  of 
earth,  colored  star  rays  in  the  infinite  azure  of 
the  skies,  brilliant  tints  of  the  young  foliage,  still 
more  brilliant  hues  of  the  dying  foliage  in  autumn." 
And  above  the  true  and  the  beautiful,  above  the  world 
of  true  thoughts  and  beautiful  things,  he  shows  us 
what  he  calls  the  sublimity  of  the  moral  world. 

"The  laws  of  physical  nature  are  sublime, 
but  there  exists  a  moral  sublimity,  before  which 
the  highest  intelligence  bows  down  and  adores. 
The  laws  which  cause  the  winds  to  blow,  the 
tides  to  rise  and  fall,  planets  to  roll,  and  suns  to 
shine,  the  laws  which  preside  over  the  subtle 
combinations  of  atoms  and  the  terrible  speed  of 
electricity,  the  laws  of  germination  and  reproduc- 
tion in  the  vegetable  and  animal  kingdom,  what- 
ever be  their  radiant  beauty,  pale  and  fade  before 
the  moral  glories  which  envelop  the  universe  in 
celestial  light.  The  heart  is  aware  of  charms 
which  no  beauty  of  things  known,  no  dream  of 
things  unknown,  can  equal.  Virtue  shines  with 


HORACE  MANN  91 

a  purer  ray  than  the  diamond,  the  gardens  of 
Arabia  do  not  breathe  so  sweet  a  perfume  as  that 
of  charity.  .  .  ." 

What  a  beautiful  picture  he  draws  of  the  honest 
man  and  good  citizen!  The  purity  of  morals, 
the  punctuality,  probity,  devotion  to  others,  the 
spirit  of  self-sacrifice,  of  solidarity,  —  all  these  virtues 
he  draws  with  a  glowing  pen.  "The  honest  man, 
the  good  citizen,  is  doubtless  not  insensible  to  the 
charm  of  the  arts,  but  he  knows  that  the  most 
beautiful  of  arts  is  to  paint  smiles  and  joy  upon 
the  pale  cheeks  of  poor  and  suffering  childhood." 
Reason  and  conscience  have  taught  him  "that 
it  is  not  permissible  to  adorn  rich  galleries  with 
the  marvels  of  art  while  the  orphan  is  neglected 
in  the  streets,  while  the  sons  of  the  intemperate 
and  profligate  have  no  school  but  that  of  obscenity 
and  blasphemy,  while  the  world  is  afflicted  with 
infinite  evils  which  superfluous  wealth  and  wasted 
time  would  amply  suffice  to  remedy." 

Mann  was  a  republican  by  conviction;  he  hailed 
with  joy  the  rise  of  democracy  without  disguising 
from  himself  its  dangers. 

"I  rejoice  that  power  has  passed  irrevocably 
into  the  hands  of  the  people.  For  ages  upon 
ages  humanity  has  groaned  beneath  oppression; 
whole  races  have  been  enslaved  for  the  benefit 


92  HORACE  MANN 

of  a  chosen  few.  To  gratify  the  ambition  of 
tyrants,  nations  have  perished  on  the  battle- 
field. The  noblest  faculties  of  man  have  been  ob- 
scured and  crushed  by  ignorance  and  superstition. 
There  has  been  an  end  to  liberty  of  conscience, 
of  thought,  and  of  speech.  Heaven  itself  has  been 
offered  for  sale,  like  a  piece  of  property,  by  men 
who  had  no  right  to  it.  .  .  .  Power  has  now  passed 
from  the  few  to  the  many,  from  the  oppressors 
to  their  victims.  The  rich,  the  noble,  the  privi- 
leged classes,  had  been  granted  authority  for  the 
benefit  of  the  people  and  had  misused  it.  Their 
fate  is  to-day  in  the  hands  of  the  people :  its  poverty 
commands  their  opulence;  its  ignorance  decides 
their  rights;  its  appetites  threaten  their  homes. 
It  is  no  longer  a  question  of  philanthropy  with 
them;  they  have  nothing  to  consider  now  but 
how  to  protect  and  save  themselves.  They  will 
understand  at  last  that  the  favored  classes  are 
safe  only  through  the  devotion  or  self-interest 
of  the  rest.  .  .  ." 

An  optimist,  like  all  good  men  who  naturally 
incline  to  believe  in  the  goodness  of  others  and 
who,  being  sure  of  the  nobility  of  their  intentions, 
never  dream  of  being  misunderstood;  and  unable, 
like  all  active  men,  to  imagine  that  their  efforts 
will  be  in  vain,  Mann  conceived  high  hopes  for 


HORACE  MANN  93 

the  future  of  humanity;  but  he  was  at  the  same 
time  clear-sighted  enough  to  perceive  to  what 
dangers  the  sovereign  power  of  universal  suffrage 
exposes  a  free  democracy,  if  it  is  not  enlightened  by 
instruction  and  education;  and  of  these  fatal 
consequences  of  liberty  in  ignorance,  he  traced 
the  darkest  picture :  — 

"Already  sounds  on  our  ears  the  tread  of  that 
innumerable  army  of  the  coming  generations. 
They  are  men  who  will  take  counsel  only  of  their 
desires,  which  they  will  transform  into  laws;  so- 
ciety will  no  longer  be  anything  but  the  incarnation 
of  their  will,  and  if  we  take  no  more  care  than  we 
have  hitherto  done  to  enlighten  and  regulate  that 
will,  it  will  engrave  its  laws  upon  the  whole  circuit 
of  the  globe  in  gigantic  and  awful  characters. " 

Certainly  he  did  not  doubt  the  future  of  the 
republic  nor  its  perpetuity. 

"It  would  be  easier  to  turn  back  the  sun  in  his 
course  than  to  monopolize  again  in  the  hands 
of  a  few  the  power  which  has  passed  into  the  hands 
of  the  people.  Sooner  will  the  oak  reenter  the 
acorn  than  we  shall  return  to  the  monarchical 
and  aristocratic  forms  of  the  past." 

And  elsewhere : 

"Ideas  of  liberty,  duty,  and  fraternity  now 
move  the  nations,  and  neither  the  Pope  with  his 


94  HORACE  MANN 

Cardinals  nor  the  Czar  with  his  Cossacks  will  suc- 
ceed in  suppressing  them." 

But  to  this  triumphant  democracy  he  gave 
the  wisest  counsels,  and  at  all  times  and  in  all 
countries  it  is  useful  to  hear  and  ponder  his  eloquent 
warnings;  such,  for  example,  as  these:  "It  is 
perhaps  easy  to  found  a  republic;  it  certainly 
is  not  easy  to  make  republicans.  Woe  to  the 
republic  which  is  founded  only  upon  the  suffrage 
of  ignorance,  egotism,  and  passion  !  National  rep- 
resentation is  the  faithful  mirror  of  the  mind 
and  ideals  of  the  people,  and  if  these  ideals  are 
not  on  a  level  with  its  institutions,  what  perils 
and  disasters  are  possible!" 

Thus  he  reasoned  more  and  more  strongly  for 
the  necessity  of  universal  education.  "He  is  not 
an  American  statesman,"  he  said,  "who  does  not 
devote  all  his  efforts  to  the  education  of  the  people." 
And  this  is  equally  true  of  every  country  on  earth. 

"Education  is  our  only  political  safeguard; 
outside  of  this  ark  there  is  no  salvation."  If 
education  did  not  succeed  in  preserving  the  public 
mind  from  corruption,  all  would  be  lost;  all  at- 
tempts to  protect  by  law  the  property,  the  liberty, 
even  the  life  of  the  citizen  would  be  as  vain  as 
"  the  attempt  to  drive  hornets  from  our  orchards 
by  means  of  sign-posts  and  warnings." 


IV 

HORACE  MANN,  PRESIDENT  OF  ANTIOCH  COLLEGE 
(1853-1859) 

THE  interest  never  languishes  in  the  life  of  Hor- 
ace Mann;  scarcely  has  he  accomplished  one 
task  before  he  undertakes  another.  Men  of  action, 
such  as  he,  never  cease  their  activity  in  widely 
different  directions ;  they  labor  till  the  last  breath 
and  die  at  their  task. 

The  15th  of  September,  1852,  Horace  Mann, 
member  of  Congress,  was  elected  governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts by  the  free  suffrage  of  his  fellow-citizens. 
On  the  same  day  a  society  of  friends  of  education 
offered  him  the  presidency  of  a  new  college  about 
to  be  established  at  Yellow  Springs,  Ohio.  Called 
upon  to  choose  between  these  two  positions,  Mann  did 
not  hesitate ;  he  decided  in  favor  of  the  more  modest 
office,  but  the  greater  in  his  eyes,  the  academic  one. 
This  time  he  sacrificed  politics  to  education. 

He  held  the  presidency  of  Antioch  College  for 
six  years,  until  his  death.  It  was  a  laborious 
and  painful  period  of  his  life  and  in  some  respects 

95 


96  HORACE  MANN 

a  dramatic  one.  While  this  position  offered  a 
great  field  for  his  executive  powers  and  revealed 
his  rare  gifts  as  a  practical  educator,  it  obliged 
him  to  contend  with  difficulties  of  every  descrip- 
tion; he  suffered  much  as  Pestalozzi  had  suffered 
at  Yverdon,  so  that  these  last  years  of  his  life 
present  at  times  a  painful  and  pathetic  spectacle. 

The  work  to  be  undertaken  was  an  interesting 
one  and  of  a  nature  to  tempt  Mann's  ambition. 
To  his  ardent  imagination  it  appeared  as  an  op- 
portunity to  regenerate  the  Western  States,  which 
were  still  partly  wilderness  and  at  least  backward 
in  order  and  civilization.  It  seemed  to  him  that 
he  had  but  to  open  in  this  new  region  a  college 
for  advanced  study  and  lofty  ethics,  in  order  to 
import  thither  all  the  civilization  which  had  long 
flourished  in  the  more  favored  soil  of  the  East. 
" Shall  the  West,"  he  asked,  "that  empire  as 
vast  almost  as  that  of  the  Caesars,  belong  to  science, 
virtue,  and  human  brotherhood,  or  shall  it  become 
the  prey  of  corruption  and  license  ?  .  .  .  It  can  only 
be  civilized  if  a  son  of  Massachusetts  transplants 
there  the  spirit  of  the  original  States  of  the  Union, 
—  those  States  which  have  long  reverenced  reli- 
gion and  learning." 

The  spirit  which  was  to  preside,  according  to 
the  plan  of  its  founders,  over  this  new  institution 


HORACE   MANN  97 

was  in  perfect  harmony  with  Mann's  general  views. 
At  a  preparatory  gathering,  the  first  Faculty 
Meeting  held  at  his  house  in  West  Newton,  in 
October,  1852,  where  the  programme  of  studies  was 
drawn  up,  he  discovered,  with  delight,  that  they 
were  in  complete  agreement.  "We  are  all  teeto- 
talers," he  wrote,  "all  anti-tobacco  men,  all  anti- 
slavery  men,  and  the  majority  are  adepts  in  phre- 
nology; all  hostile  to  emulation,  that  is,  opposed 
to  any  system  of  discipline  founded  on  rewards 
and  prizes,  and  which,  by  exciting  children  to  com- 
pare themselves  with  their  companions,  leads  them 
away  from  the  true  motive  of  action,  which  is  to 
compare  oneself  with  an  ideal  of  excellence." 

The  agreement  was  equally  close  in  religious 
matters;  the  promoters  of  the  enterprise,  though 
professing  themselves  free  from  all  sectarian  spirit, 
yet  belonged,  most  of  them,  to  a  new  association 
calling  itself  the  Christian  Union;  they  claimed 
to  have  no  other  creed  than  the  Bible  and  to  have 
cast  aside  all  denominational  bonds.  They  wished 
to  be  simply  Christians  after  the  manner  of  the 
first  Christians  in  the  city  of  Antioch,  and  it  was 
for  this  reason  that  the  college  was  named  Antioch 
College.  In  1853  Mann  was  already  fifty-seven 
years  of  age;  he  had  never,  up  to  this  time,  been 
a  practical  instructor,  or  even  done  any  regular 


98  HORACE  MANN 

teaching.  It  was  thus  a  fortunate  new  departure 
for  him  to  be  able  to  devote  the  evening  of  his 
beautiful  life  to  the  application  of  his  favorite 
ideas.  Certainly  it  was  not  without  regret  that 
he  left  New  England,  the  scene  of  his  long  scholastic 
propaganda  and  of  his  political  career;  and  when 
he  bade  a  last  farewell  to  the  friends  who  came  to 
see  him  off,  the  strong  man  wept  like  a  child. 
Moreover,  he  was  not  unaware,  though  he  did  not 
foresee  them  all,  of  the  difficulties  awaiting  him 
in  a  comparatively  rude  region,  so  far  behind 
that  which  he  was  leaving  in  traditions,  morals, 
and  social  culture.  These  difficulties  other  edu- 
cators had  encountered  before  him,  and  he  had 
been  fully  warned. 

Twenty  years  earlier  Catherine  Beecher  and 
her  sister  Harriet,  the  same  who  later,  as  Mrs. 
Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  became  famous  as  the 
writer  of  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  had  met  with  hostility 
and  opposition  in  undertaking  to  found  a  girls' 
college  at  Cincinnati.  Three  years  before  the 
foundation  of  Antioch,  in  1850,  Calvin  Stowe,  the 
husband  of  Harriet,  a  professor  in  Cincinnati,  had 
been  persecuted  and  driven  out  of  the  city  by  the 
partisans  of  slavery  and  forced  to  seek  refuge  in 
the  East  with  his  wife  and  family.  Mann  mentions 
in  one  of  his  letters  that  Catherine  Beecher,  as 


HORACE  MANN  99 

the  result  of  her  own  experience,  endeavored  to 
dissuade  him  from  his  project  by  representing  to 
him  the  obstacles  he  must  encounter  in  the  in- 
hospitable region  of  the  West.  But  it  was  all  in 
vain,  his  mind  was  made  up;  his  enthusiasm 
overflowed;  and  he  exclaimed  not  without  a  touch 
of  declamation :  — 

"  Where  the  capital  of  the  United  States  ought 
to  be  situated  is  here  in  the  Mississippi  Valley, 
which  is  to  be  the  seat  of  its  empire.  No  other 
valley,  not  the  Danube,  the  Ganges,  the  Nile,  nor 
the  Amazon,  is  destined  to  exert  so  potent  an  in- 
fluence over  the  future  of  humanity;  and  this 
is  the  reason  why,  if  its  people  study  the  laws  of 
God  on  social  questions  and  strive  to  conform 
to  them,  they  should  rise  to  the  contemplation  of 
the  future  and  enduring  reign  of  beneficence  and 
peace. " 

Antioch  College  opened  its  doors  on  the  5th 
of  October,  1853,  with  nearly  two  hundred 
students.  Over  three  thousand  people  assembled 
for  the  inaugural  exercises.  Mann  pronounced 
a  glowing  oration,  in  which  he  gave  utterance  to 
his  hope  of  conquering  the  West  by  education. 
" There  is  life  enough  in  your  Inaugural,"  wrote 
his  friend,  Theodore  Parker,  "to  make  a  college 
flourish  in  the  desert  of  Sahara."  "To  form  young 


100  HORACE  MANN 

minds  and  hearts,"  he  himself  said,  —  "  was  not  this 
the  most  beautiful  task  ever  confided  to  a  man 
or  an  angel?" 

The  reality  failed  to  correspond  with  these 
bright  visions.  First  came  the  annoyances  at- 
tendant on  moving  into  unfinished  buildings.  An- 
tioch  College,  when  Mann  arrived  there  with  his 
family,  presented  a  forlorn  spectacle:  nothing 
was  completed,  all  was  still  chaos  or  at  most  "  ar- 
rested creation,  on  the  third  day."  It  required 
many  months  before  the  toil  of  building  and  moving 
was  concluded.  Unquestionably,  the  site  was  well 
chosen,  —  in  the  midst  of  a  smiling  landscape  sur- 
rounded by  verdure  and  tranquillity.  The  small 
town  of  Yellow  Springs  was  famed,  as  its  name 
indicates,  for  its  springs  of  medicinal  water;  Mann 
was  about  to  create  fresh  springs  of  moral  life 
there. 

To  make  room  for  the  college  buildings,  they 
had  been  obliged  to  clear  a  forest.  Huge  stumps 
of  trees  were  lying  about  in  all  directions  upon 
the  miry  soil,  which  resembled  a  swamp. 

Doubtless,  private  enterprises  are  admirable  in 
their  way,  and  we  know  that  their  tradition  is 
happily  preserved  in  the  United  States.  But 
it  must  be  acknowledged  that  such  enterprises 
are  not  always  carried  out  with  the  same  precision 


4   UNIVERSITY   | 

V     .         Or  / 


HORACE  MANN  101 

and  thoroughness  as  the  State  institutions  of  more 
centralized  countries.  Antioch  had  been  supposed 
to  have  an  endowment  of  $600,000,000,  but  the 
actual  amount  was  not  forthcoming,  and  the  estab- 
lishment opened  with  a  deficit. 

For  several  months  extreme  disorder  reigned 
there;  the  hastily  erected  buildings  were  not 
enclosed  by  any  wall  or  even  fence,  and  the  animals 
of  the  neighborhood  entered  the  college  precincts 
with  the  utmost  freedom,  —  the  famous  Ohio  pigs 
circulating  through  the  corridors  and  often  ob- 
structing the  way  for  masters  and  pupils.  As 
there  was  no  drinking  water  on  the  place,  the 
young  girls  belonging  to  the  college  were  obliged 
to  fill  their  pitchers  at  a  well  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
distant,  and  this  in  the  depth  of  winter  and  often 
in  the  snow.  There  were  no  fires  to  warm  the 
buildings,  and  several  cold  months  passed  before 
the  arrival  of  the  furnaces  which  had  been  ordered. 
The  interior  furnishing  was  deficient  not  only  in 
the  comforts,  but  in  the  necessities  of  life:  the 
library  was  devoid  of  books,  there  was  a  total 
absence  of  writing  tables,  so  that  the  students 
were  obliged  to  eat  and  study  by  turns  at  the  same 
tables. 

Some  one  has  said:  "Give  us  men,  and  it  will 
matter  little  if  we  set  up  a  university  or  a  college 


102  HORACE  MANN 

in  barracks,  or  the  students  live  in  tents !"  Horace 
Mann  was  assuredly  a  man,  but  even  his  strong 
will  could  not  supply  the  material  deficiencies 
from  which  his  colleagues  and  pupils  were  suffer- 
ing. The  students,  ill-clothed  and  ill-fed,  began 
to  be  insubordinate,  and  during  the  first  year  Mann 
feared  that  a  mutiny  might  break  out  in  the  dining 
room,  and  by  way  of  precaution  he  took  his  meals 
at  the  common  table.  The  masters  were  not 
regularly  paid,  and  it  was  found  necessary  to  re- 
duce the  salaries  and  employ  less  expensive  teachers. 
For  a  year  and  a  half  Mann  did  not  touch  his  salary, 
but  with  a  devotion  to  his  task  worthy  of  a  Pesta- 
lozzi,  he  exclaimed:  "I  am  ready  to  suffer  any- 
thing for  these  young  people!" 

These  difficulties  were  not  confined  to  the  first 
days;  the  situation  grew  worse  and  worse,  and 
Mann  experienced  hours  of  profound  discourage- 
ment. Not  only  did  he  behold  the  institution 
on  the  verge  of  financial  ruin,  but  he  was  conscious 
of  an  ill-concealed  opposition  among  those  about 
him.  The  patrons  of  the  enterprise,  members 
of  the  Christian  Union,  claimed  to  belong  to  no 
sect,  but  at  heart  they  inclined  toward  orthodoxy, 
and  Mann's  liberalism  caused  them  some  anxiety. 
When  he  decided  to  enter  the  pulpit  and  constitute 
himself  a  minister,  there  arose  a  fresh  series  of 


HORACE  MANN  103 

attacks  against  this  improvised  "  clergyman."  On 
the  one  hand,  he  was  charged  with  having  renounced 
his  liberal  convictions;  on  the  other,  with  not 
having  conformed  to  the  laws  of  evangelical  ordi- 
nation. 

Mann,  as  president  of  the  college,  was  concerned 
merely  with  the  moral  direction  of  the  house; 
he  had  no  administrative  duties  and  had  not  even 
the  right  to  select  his  own  professors.  A  super- 
intendent had  been  appointed  as  his  colleague, 
charged  with  the  administration,  who  soon  gave 
evidence,  in  his  relations  with  Mann,  of  an  unaccom- 
modating temper,  and  who,  instead  of  supporting 
his  authority,  constantly  sought  to  undermine  it 
—  a  second  Schmid  for  this  new  Pestalozzi. 
Antioch  also  sustained  attacks  from  those  who 
had  been  on  its  staff,  a  pamphlet  of  over  three 
hundred  pages,  criticising  Mann  and  the  college, 
having  been  circulated  by  a  former  professor  who 
had  been  dismissed. 

Finally,  Mann  was  growing  old;  his  strength 
was  failing  day  by  day.  In  1855  he  was  attacked 
by  a  partial  paralysis  of  the  tongue  and  was  con- 
fined for  weeks  to  a  bed  of  suffering.  But  his 
iron  will  was  stronger  than  disease,  stronger  than 
the  hostility  of  his  enemies.  "Here  I  am,  and 
here  I  stay,"  he  wrote;  "I  try  to  think  the  sun- 


104  HORACE  MANN 

rises  and  sunsets  as  beautiful  as  those  I  gazed 
upon  in  Boston  in  the  society  of  my  friends." 
Nothing  could  turn  him  aside  from  his  great  mission 
as  an  educator,  which  comprised  two  things,  in- 
separable in  his  eyes,  — to  honor  God  and  serve  hu- 
manity. "We  must  succeed  or  die/7  he  wrote. 
He  succeeded,  indeed,  in  a  great  measure,  and  he 
died  at  his  task ! 

Mann's  first  concern  had  been  to  organize  the 
course  of  study,  and  this  could  not  be  regularly 
accomplished  for  some  time.  The  students  who 
poured  into  Antioch  College  at  its  opening  were 
not  ordinary  students  nor  easily  classified;  they 
were  of  all  ages  and  all  conditions,  —  adolescents, 
adults,  and  even  married  men.  Attracted  by  Mann's 
great  reputation,  a  number  of  ministers  had 
abandoned  their  parishes  in  order  to  follow  a  college 
course.  But  all,  or  nearly  all,  were  of  such  ex- 
ceptional ignorance  that  the  professors  were  driven 
to  their  wits'  ends.  Out  of  the  total  number  of 
pupils  admitted  in  1853  —  about  two  hundred  - 
seven  only  were  found  capable  of  constituting 
a  small  freshman  class;  that  is  to  say,  of  entering 
on  a  first  year  of  secondary  studies. 

All  this,  it  is  true,  changed  rapidly;  and  to  the 
disorderly  rabble  of  the  first  days  there  succeeded 
in  the  following  years  a  carefully  culled  elite.  The 


HORACE  MANN  105 

college  was  no  longer  open  to  the  first  comer; 
applications  had  grown  so  numerous  that  Mann 
was  able  to  discriminate;  he  accordingly  estab- 
lished entrance  examinations  with  rigid  conditions 
of  admission.  And  herein  is  clearly  shown  the 
character  of  an  educator  who  valued  moral  qualities 
above  intellectual  gifts:  out  of  all  the  young  men 
who  presented  themselves,  Mann  made  a  selection 
based  on  moral  rather  than  intellectual  quali- 
fications; the  highest  knowledge  in  his  opinion 
being  reserved  as  the  privilege  of  virtuous  youth. 
He  reversed  the  terms  of  the  Socratic  adage, 
"He  who  is  wise  is  good,"  and  said,  "Only  he 
who  is  good  shall  be  called  to  become  wise."  This 
was  to  overlook  the  necessity  for  educating  all; 
it  was  also  to  simplify  the  problem  of  moral  edu- 
cation by  well-nigh  suppressing  it  altogether.  In 
order  to  secure  beforehand  the  moral  integrity 
of  his  college,  Mann  sought  to  admit  to  it  only 
worthy  young  men.  He  closed  its  doors  to  all 
whose  characters  did  not  seem  to  him  to  offer 
a  sufficient  guarantee  for  the  future.  He  put 
them  on  their  trial,  so  to  speak,  during  the  pre- 
paratory course  of  three  years,  to  which  he  ad- 
mitted all  applicants  on  condition  of  eliminating, 
as  soon  as  it  became  necessary,  the  incorrigibly 
vicious.  And  he  admitted  to  the  benefits  of  the 


106  HORACE  MANN 

higher  education  what  he  called  "the  privileges  and 
delights  of  science  and  letters"  —  only  those  youths 
whose  morals  and  character  he  had  proved. 

Under  these  conditions,  with  a  carefully  selected 
body  of  students  under  such  a  leader  as  Mann, 
Antioch  could  not  fail  to  become  a  model  college. 
The  system  of  instruction  was  founded,  on  the 
whole,  upon  the  pattern  of  the  older  New  England 
colleges;  Latin  and  Greek  were  taught,  and  the 
degree  of  B.A.  was  conferred  upon  graduates. 
Mann,  however,  introduced  some  interesting  in- 
novations into  his  course  of  studies.  He  gave 
a  larger  place  to  the  sciences  and  history,  in  spite 
of  his  prejudice  against  the  latter  study,  and  in- 
scribed physiology  and  hygiene  on  a  college  course 
for  the  first  time.  Always  concerned  with  the 
problem  of  training  efficient  teachers,  he  founded 
courses  on  the  theory  and  practice  of  teaching, 
thus  making  of  Antioch  a  sort  of  normal  school. 

But  it  was  in  his  methods,  above  all,  that  Mann 
introduced  innovations:  first,  by  establishing  the 
system  of  optional  courses,  those  "electives"  which 
still  enjoy  such  favor  in  the  United  States  and 
which  the  reforms  of  1902  have  partially  intro- 
duced into  French  secondary  education.  He  made 
it  obligatory  to  follow  all  the  courses  in  the  senior 
class  only,  where  particular  attention  was  paid 


HORACE  MANN  107 

to  historical  and  philosophical  studies.  Another 
novelty  was  the  preference  given  to  oral  instruction 
over  teaching  by  books.  "The  fewest  text-books 
possible"  was  Mann's  motto.  The  cultivation  of 
speech  was  one  of  his  hobbies,  and  he  wished  that 
even  children  should  have  daily  practice  in  de- 
scribing the  objects  about  them  and  in  relating 
a  story  orally. 

It  is  evident  that  Mann  had  reflected  seriously 
upon  questions  of  practical  pedagogy.  In  his 
inaugural  address  on  assuming  the  presidency 
of  Antioch,  he  discussed  several  of  these  essential 
problems ;  as,  for  instance :  Is  it  from  the  humani- 
ties and  the  dead  languages  or  from  mathematics 
and  the  natural  sciences  that  we  should  seek  the 
true  discipline  of  the  mind?  How  can  science 
be  reconciled  with  literature  in  a  plan  of  studies 
and  how  is  specialization  to  be  combined  with 
general  culture?  How  can  the  professor  who 
is  himself  a  seeker  for  truth  develop  the  love  of 
research  in  his  pupils?  > 

Mann  was  not  content  merely  to  direct  and  inspire 
the  teaching  of  his  colleagues :  he  himself  taught  the 
branches  of  moral  philosophy  and  political  economy, 
thus  reserving  as  his  part  the  training  of  the  honest 
man  and  good  citizen.  He  occupied,  moreover, 
the  chair  of  natural  theology;  and  in  these  various 


108  HORACE  MANN 

directions  he  was,  according  to  the  testimony  of 
his  pupils,  an  accomplished  teacher.  His  teaching 
was  " stimulating  and  suggestive,"  we  are  told, 
and  there  was  something  in  it  of  feminine  delicacy 
and  gentleness. 

But  it  was  especially  in  the  house  discipline, 
of  which  all  the  responsibility  rested  on  him,  that 
Mann  showed  his  originality.  It  was  a  discipline 
of  freedom,  by  which  the  students  were  taught 
to  gu$e  themselves;  supervision  was  dispensed 
with,  even  in  the  dormitories.  The  college  was 
transformed  into  a  home,  and  became,  as  it  were, 
one  great  family,  of  which  Mann  was  the  kind 
and  attentive  father  living  in  the  midst  of  his 
children.  The  pupils  were  associated  in  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  house  by  a  sort  of  mutual  self-govern- 
ment. The  oldest  pupils  took  the  younger  ones 
under  their  special  protection,  just  as  in  a  family 
the  big  brothers  look  after  the  little  ones,  under 
the  eye  of  the  parents.  At  the  convention  of 
Ohio  colleges  in  1856  Mann  offered  the  following 
resolution:  "That  the  pupils  in  an  institution 
of  learning  shall  cooperate  in  its  government  and 
contribute  toward  maintaining  order."  This  was 
very  much  what  was  being  attempted  at  the  same 
period  at  Rugby  by  the  great  English  head-master, 
Thomas  Arnold.  At  Antioch  the  students,  on 


HORACE  MANN  109 

entering,  pledged  themselves  on  their  honor  to 
obey  the  rules  of  the  college,  and  they  kept  their 
word.  By  appealing  to  their  conscience,  to  their  \ 
free  will,  Mann  sought  not  only  to  fit  them  to  be 
men,  but  to  put  an  end  to  that  state  of  warfare, 
that  antagonism  between  teachers  and  pupils,  which 
is  so  often  the  curse  of  education. 

To  avoid  punishment  as  far  as  possible  was  the 
general  aim  of  Mann's  discipline ;  and  he  had  ex- 
plained himself  fully  upon  this  subject  in  his  lecture 
of  the  year  1840.  Punishment  was  an  evil  in  his 
eyes :  first,  because  under  the  pretext  of  preventing 
a  greater  evil  it  inflicts  suffering ;  secondly,  because 
it  develops  the  sentiment  of  fear  and  thus  debases 
mind  and  heart.  Mann  did  not  wish  to  make 
himself  feared,  but  loved;  and  to  obtain  good 
work  and  order,  he  counted  upon  the  affection 
which  a  kind  and  competent  master  inspires  in 
his  pupils,  as  well  as  upon  the  charms  of  learning 
and  the  interest  aroused  by  well-taught  lessons. 

Without  knowing  Herbart  he  agreed  with  him 
when  he  says:  "One  hour  a  day  spent  by  the 
professor  in  preparing  an  attractive  lesson  will 
dispense  with  many  severities  on  his  part."  And 
elsewhere:  "For  a  teacher  to  succeed  he  must  have 
won  the  affection  of  his  pupils.  The  child  will 
learn  nothing,  not  even  mathematics,  from  a  teacher 


110  HORACE  MANN 

he  does  not  like."  To  express  the  depressing 
effects  which  a  system  of  terror  has  on  the  mind, 
he  says:  "You  cannot  fail  to  have  seen  the  trunk 
of  an  old  tree  bearing  the  scars  of  a  wound  it  has 
received  in  its  youth:  all  the  wounded  side  has 
remained  twisted  and  gnarled,  whereas  on  the 
other  side  the  tree,  nourished  by  a  superabundant 
sap,  has  attained  a  disproportionate  size.  This 
is  the  exact  image  of  a  man  whose  youth  has  been 
distorted  by  an  excess  of  severity." 

In  cases  where  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to 
have  recourse  to  punishment,  —  and  Mann  was 
fully  aware  that  one  must  at  times  resign  oneself 
to  this  course,  —  one  should  never  forget  that 
penal  discipline  should  be  merely  repressive, 
that  its  aim  is,  above  all,  to  amend  the  culprit  and 
lead  him  back  to  the  path  of  duty.  Moreover, 
great  care  should  be  taken  to  proportion  the  penalty 
to  the  evil  intention,  the  "will  for  evil"  which  the 
fault  betrays;  and,  finally,  one  should  resort  to 
punishment  only  with  regret  and  sorrow:  "No\ 
punishment  is  beneficent  except  on  condition  of/ 
its  being  more  painful  to  him  who  inflicts  than 
to  him  who  undergoes  it." 

For  repressive  discipline  Mann  therefore  sub- 
stituted a  regime  of  trust  and  mildness.  But 
such  a  regime  supposes,  on  the  part  of  him  who 


HORACE  MANN  111 

applies  it,  strong  moral  authority  joined  to  active 
vigilance.  Every  morning  before  prayers  Mann 
delivered  an  address  to  the  assembled  pupils, — 
a  sort  of  lay  sermon,  —  which,  however,  did  not 
dispense  him  from  frequent  private  conversations 
with  individual  pupils  and  intimate,  confidential 
talks. 

His  authority  was  reenforced  by  the  sympathy 
he  inspired,  by  his  great  powers  of  persuasion,  and 
by  the  influence  of  his  own  conscientiousness. 
The  noble  ideal  he  set  before  his  pupils  was  ex- 
emplified in  his  own  laborious  and  stainless  life. 
A  pious  American  writer  said  of  him:  "He  offered 
the  radiant  and  rare  example  of  a  man  in  whom 
a  religion  of  mere  morality  produces,  or  at  least 
is  united  to,  an  ardor  of  feeling,  an  intensity  of 
virtue,  which  are  usually  associated  with  faith 
and  positive  attachment  to  revealed  religion." 

"  Where  he  was  incomparable/7  writes  one  of 
his  old  pupils,  "was  in  the  art  of  arousing  ardor 
and  enthusiasm.  It  would  be  as  impossible  to 
be  near  the  sun  without  feeling  its  warmth  as  to 
be  a  witness  of  Mann's  passion  for  truth  without 
sharing  it.  The  vivacity  of  his  impressions  was 
merely  one  form  of  his  faith  in  God  and  man,  a 
faith  so  contagious  that  [indifference,  misanthropy, 
and  scepticism  vanished  at  his  approach;  and 


112  HORACE  MANN 

when  he  had  communicated  to  us  this  ardor  and 
this  faith,  he  was  so  careful  to  respect  our  individ- 
uality that  he  put  us  on  our  guard  against  the 
ascendency  which  his  own  opinions  might  have 
gained  over  us.  Thus  we  had  in  him  as  delicate 
a  guide  as  he  was  a  powerful  inspirer.  .  .  . 

"We  sometimes  see  free-thinkers  who  show  them- 
selves as  intolerant  toward  any  difference  of  opinion 
in  their  followers  as  are  the  bigots  from  whom 
they  have  parted  company.  But  not  so  Mann; 
he  was  too  conscious  of  this  tendency  in  human 
nature  to  wish  to  indoctrinate  others.  He  praised 
every  effort  in  the  direction  of  free  thought;  he 
distrusted  no  one  who  was  seeking  after  truth  in 
purity  of  heart  and  honesty  of  mind." 

Does  it  not  seem  as  if  we  were  listening  to  an 
old  pupil  of  Fontenay  paying  homage  to  Felix 
Pecaut  and  extolling  at  the  same  time  the  force 
of  his  moral  ascendency  and  the  delicate  reserve 
and  discretion  of  his  liberal  teaching?  Does  this 
imply  that  there  is  nothing  to  criticise  in  Mann's 
disciplinary  methods?  How  can  we  approve  of 
the  role  he  assigned  to  his  pupils  when  he  urged 
them  to  report  each  other's  misdoings?  Just 
as  in  the  social  world  a  good  citizen  sets  himself 
in  opposition  to  the  misdeeds  he  sees  committed, 
so,  according  to  Mann,  in  the  smaller  world  of 


HORACE  MANN  113 

college  a  good  student  should  prevent  the  evil  he 
is  aware  of  by  reporting  it.  Was  not  this  en- 
couraging, to  a  certain  extent,  a  habit  of  spying? 

It  is  permissible,  also,  to  hold  that  Mann  obeyed 
the  dictates  of  an  extreme  asceticism  in  the  cam- 
paign which  he  conducted  at  Antioch,  as  elsewhere, 
against  all  infractions,  even  the  most  innocent 
ones,  against  the  law  of  total  abstinence.  He 
had  inherited  a  strain  of  Puritanism  from  his  fore- 
fathers, and  one  can  hardly  refrain  from  smiling 
at  the  anathemas  he  launches  with  the  utmost 
solemnity  against  tobacco  and  smokers;  as,  for 
example,  when  he  says  to  the  Antioch  students : 
"It  is  not  mere  smoke,  young  men,  which  you  see 
floating  off  in  cloudy  spirals,  it  is  a  part  of  your 
souls;  when  your  nerves  become  impregnated  with 
tobacco,  they  can  no  longer  execute  your  will." 

In  his  somewhat  prejudiced  campaign  against 
tobacco,  he  found  no  less  than  ten  reasons  for 
proscribing  its  use;  to  wit,  that  tobacco  is  in- 
jurious to  the  health;  that  it  poisons  the  air  and 
annoys  non-smokers;  that  it  is  a  dirty  and  also 
a  costly  habit ;  that  for  the  amount  a  smoker  spends 
for  his  tobacco  he  could  buy  a  farm,  build  a  house, 
or,  at  the  very  least,  collect  a  library,  etc.  The 
drinking  habit  has  never  had  in  the  United  States 
a  more  implacable  adversary  than  Mann.  During 


114  HORACE   MANN 

the  convention  of  the  Ohio  Teachers'  Association, 
he  caused  the  following  resolution  to  be  adopted 
on  December  27,  1836 : 

"  School  examiners  shall  never  grant  a  certificate 
of  fitness  as  an  instructor  to  any  one  indulging 
in  the  habitual  use  of  spirituous  liquors;  and 
where  the  qualifications  are  equal  between  candi- 
dates, the  preference  shall  be  systematically  given 
tpthe  candidate  who  is  a  total  abstainer." 

But  on  how  many  points  Mann  gave  evidence 
of  the  broadest  spirit,  notably  in  regard  to  the  edu- 
cation of  woman.  "The  coeducation  of  the  sexes," 
he  said,  "is  our  great  experiment  at  Antioch." 
He  had  already  attempted  it  —  and  with  success 
—  in  two  of  his  primary  normal  schools  in  Massa- 
chusetts. He  now  sought  to  introduce  in  a  college 
or  institution  of  secondary  education  a  reform 
which  he  regarded  as  an  excellent  one,  and  which 
his  countrymen  have  since  widely  adopted.  In 
fact,  at  the  present  day  coeducation  is  the  rule 
rather  than  the  exception  in  schools  of  every  order 
in  the  United  States.  And  in  the  higher,  or  uni- 
versity, education  also,  Mann  advocated  the  min- 
gling of  both  sexes,  as  he  set  forth  in  a  statement 
addressed  to  the  University  of  Michigan,  the  first 
university  to  adopt  the  principle  of  coeducation. 
Already  in  Ohio,  at  Oberlin  College,  women  were 


HORACE   MANN  115 

admitted  as  students,  but  not  without  restrictions: 
they  were  not  allowed  to  participate  in  the  com- 
plete scholastic  course,  but  merely  permitted  to 
follow  a  two  years'  term  of  study.  At  Antioch, 
Mann  went  farther,  —  he  opened  wide  the  college 
gates  to  girls.  He  held  an  exalted  view  of  woman 
and  resented  the  old-time  prejudices  which  denied 
her  the  higher  education  on  the  pretext  that  she  had 
no  need  for  it,  or  was  incapable  of  profiting  by  it, 
and  that  she  was  devoid  of  natural  aptitude  for 
the  sciences.  How  frequently  he  spoke  in  praise 
of  the  feminine  qualities  in  terms  which  prove 
the  delicacy  of  his  own  sentiments,  while  honor- 
ing the  noble-hearted  women  whom  he  had  known, 
and  who  served  him  as  models  when  he  drew  this 
portrait : 

"  Woman  walks  henceforth  by  the  side  of  man, 
associated  with  him  in  his  work  of  regeneration; 
she  is  always  gentle,  gracious,  and  filled  with  lofty 
ideas  of  duty.  Unequalled  in  all  deeds  of  kind- 
ness and  charity,  she  binds  up  man's  wounds 
with  a  hand  unhardened  by  wielding  deadly  weapons, 
while  her  heart  glows  with  the  divine  desire  to 
make  peace  and  purity  reign  upon  earth." 

When  Mann  wrote  these  beautiful  words,  he 
was  doubtless  inspired  by  the  example  of  her 
who  was  the  companion  of  his  later  years,  and 


116  HORACE  MANN 

who,  after  his  death,  showed  a  pious  and  touching 
devotion  to  his  memory. 

Thus  Mann  invited  women  to  seat  themselves 
on  the  same  collegiate  benches  and  to  live  beneath 
the  same  roof  with  young  men  at  Antioch,  and 
he  found  no  cause  to  regret  the  step.  At  the 
convention  of  Ohio  colleges  in  1855,  he  recorded 
the  results  of  his  experiment  in  the  following  words : 
"Each  sex  has  exercised  a  salutary  influence  over 
the  other;  they  have  stimulated  each  other  intel- 
lectually and  sustained  each  other  morally." 

These  are  the  reasons  still  given  by  the  partisans 
of  coeducation,  not  only  in  America,  but  in  England, 
where  a  movement  in  favor  of  mixed  colleges  has 
prevailed  for  several  years.  In  presence  of  girls, 
the  youths,  who  have  become  their  comrades  in 
study,  are  roused  to  emulation ;  they  wish  by  their 
success  to  maintain  the  honor  of  their  sex,  in  which 
laudable  design  they  are  not  always  successful; 
for,  according  to  American  opinion,  it  is  the  girls 
who  are  most  frequently  at  the  head  of  the  classes. 
But  at  least  the  young  men  are  spurred  on  to 
greater  efforts,  while  their  manners  are  softened 
and  their  language  and  bearing  are  freed  from 
coarseness.  The  girls,  on  the  other  hand,  lay  aside 
their  natural  timidity  and  all  that  is  essentially 
effeminate  in  their  character ;  they  gain  in  strength 


HORACE   MANN  117 

as  much  as  do  their  comrades  of  the  sterner  sex 
in  gentleness  and  courtesy. 

Mann  was  aware,  however,  that  coeducation, 
while  presenting  many  advantages,  entails  also 
certain  dangers.  To  prevent  these,  he  took  all 
manner  of  precautions,  knowing  that  the  success 
of  such  a  regime  depends  greatly  upon  the  vigilance 
of  the  presiding  head.  He  gave,  accordingly,  to 
the  young  men  and  women  of  Antioch  opportunities 
for  meeting  frequently  in  evening  gatherings  and 
friendly  reunions  in  presence  of  their  teachers, 
seeking  in  this  way  to  encourage  general  social 
intercourse  among  them  and  counteract  the  ten- 
dency to  seek  tete-a-tetes  and  private  interviews. 
That  the  attainment  of  final  diplomas  was  not 

/always  the  soul  "object  of  the  students,  both  youths 
and  maidens,  of  Antioch,  and  that  more  than  one 
matrimonial  engagement  enlivened  the  monotony 
of  these  studies  in  common,  it  would  be  vain  to 
deny.  But  Mann  would  have  retorted,  like  the 
Americans  of  our  own  day,  What  harm  in  that? 
From  this  comradeship  in  studies  may  result  the 
best  assorted  unions  between  young  people,  who 
have  learned  to  know  each  other,  to  study  each 
other's  characters,  and  to  draw  from  their  mutual 
sympathy  as  schoolmates  the  elements  of  future 
conjugal  affection. 


118  HORACE  MANN 

Let  us  add  that  Mann,  while  offering  to  young 
men  and  young  girls  the  privileges  of  equal  edu- 
cation, did  not  desire  that  it  should  be  identical. 
He  did  not  admit  the  idea  that  education  in  common 
should  case  the  two  sexes  in  the  same  mould;  he 
considered  that  woman  should  be  brought  up  as 
woman,  that  she  should  not  "wear  a  mustache 
nor  sing  bass." 

Tfye  experiments  tried  by  Mann  at  Antioch  in 
coeducation,  as  in  all  else,  appear  to  have  been 
attended  with  complete  success.  Antioch  was  re- 
garded as  the  first  of  Western  colleges,  with  which 
no  other  would  bear  comparison.  Mann,  had  he 
lived  long  enough,  would  have  joyfully  continued 
his  experiments  in  liberal  education,  and  thus 
have  contributed  to  the  general  progress  of 
humanity. 

With  the  advance  of  age  his  devotion  to  men 
only  waxed  greater  in  a  heart  which  always  re- 
mained young.  In  1856  he  wrote  to  George 
Combe : 

"I  am  sixty  years  old;  I  am  too  deeply  inter- 
ested in  the  great  affair  of  human  progress  to  wish 
to  die.  Those  great  vital  questions  of  pauperism, 
peace,  and  slavery,  of  temperance  and  education, 
I  cannot  leave  behind  without  a  painful  rending 
of  the  very  fibres  of  my  heart.  You  will  doubt- 


HORACE   MANN  119 

less  tell  me  that  these  things  will  go  on  of  them- 
selves. But  I  should  like  to  see  them  go  on  with 
my  own  eyes,  while  I  am  alive.  I  am  impatient 
to  watch  their  advance.  I  feel  for  these  noble 
causes  what  a  father  feels  for  the  children  he  loves, 
when  he  dreads  leaving  them  before  they  are  secure 
from  all  moral  dangers." 

It  was  not  to  be  granted  to  Mann  to  cooperate 
longer  in  the  progress  of  the  great  movements 
to  which  he  had  devoted  his  life.  His  end  was 
approaching ;  and  to  the  very  last  day,  he  labored 
and  struggled  with  the  difficulties  of  a  financial 
situation  which  was  going  from  bad  to  worse. 

In  1858  failure  was  imminent;  the  ruin  of  the 
college  appeared  certain.  Mann  succeeded,  how- 
ever, in  averting  it  by  mortgaging  the  house  he 
owned  in  West  Newton,  and  by  appealing  for  aid 
to  various  generous  friends.  A  new  corporation 
was  formed,  and  the  college  was  saved.  But  it 
was  too  late.  Mann's  days  were  numbered;  he 
died  on  the  2d  of  August,  1859.1 

His  physical  strength,  which  he  had  greatly 
overtaxed,  had  long  been  failing.  On  the  28th 

1  Mann's  successor  as  president  of  Antioch  was  Dr.  Thomas 
Hill.  The  college  was  suspended  during  the  Civil  War,  from 
1861-1865,  but  was  opened  immediately  on  its  conclusion,  and 
has  remained  to  this  day  a  flourishing  institution  under  the 
direction  of  Unitarians. 


120  HORACE   MANN 

of  April,  1859,  being  invited  to  the  first  convention 
of  the  normal  schools  of  America,  he  replied: 

" Public  schools  were  my  first  love;  they  will 
be  my  last.  But  I  must  seek  to  recover  my  health ; 
I  am  worn  out,  abolished,  by  hard  labor.  I  am 
a  white  slave  who  cannot  look,  alas !  for  any  aboli- 
tion of  his  slavery."  He  realized  that  his  days 
were  numbered.  In  his  last  address,  delivered 
after  the  examinations  of  1859  —  what  the  Ameri- 
cans call  the  Baccalaureate  sermon  —  and  which 
was  his  swan-song,  he  said: 

"  Girls  and  young  men,  after  so  many  years 
passed  together  on  our  journey  of  life,  the  moment 
of  separation  has  come.  In  a  day,  in  an  hour, 
we  shall  part.  Would  that  I  might  continue  to 
walk  beside  you,  to  sustain  you  with  look  and 
voice  in  the  struggle  against  ignorance  and  selfish- 
ness on  which  you  are  about  to  enter!  Up,  then, 
and  onward,  my  young  friends!  When,  after 
my  experience  of  life,  I  am  asked  what  I  would 
do  if  I  were  allowed  to  issue  it  again  in  a  revised 
edition,  I  answer  that  I  should  wish  to  do  more 
and  better  in  works  of  humanity,  temperance,  peace, 
education,  —  especially  the  education  of  women. 
I  should  like  to  live  again,  to  enroll  myself  anew  in 
a  fifty  years'  campaign,  and  fight  once  more  for  the 
glory  of  God  and  the  happiness  of  humanity!" 


HORACE   MANN  121 

Mann's  death  was  a  touching  one:  the  death 
of  a  Socrates,  with  the  added  presence  of  a  be- 
loved wife  and  cherished  sons.  The  physicians 
warned  him  that  he  had  but  three  hours  more 
to  live,  as  the  jailer  of  Athens  announced  that 
the  hour  for  drinking  the  hemlock  had  come.  The 
dying  man  raised  himself  upon  his  bed  of  pain  and 
for  two  hours  conversed  feverishly  with  the  faith- 
ful friends,  the  weeping  pupils,  who  surrounded 
him.  His  last  words  testified  to  the  serenity  of 
a  strong  soul  who  controls  the  final  agonies  in  his 
thoughts  for  those  he  is  about  to  leave,  and  who 
affirms  for  the  last  time  the  faith  and  sentiments 
which  have  always  inspired  him.  Of  one  of  his 
favorite  pupils  who  was  absent  he  said:  "Dear 
Carey,  always  good,  always  upright,  always  firm, 
tell  him  how  I  love  him!  Those  good  young  men 
who  always  do  their  duty,  how  I  love  them!  Tell 
them  how  I  love  them!"  Then  addressing  another 
pupil  whom  he  held  in  especial  esteem:  "Preach 
the  laws  of  God ;  preach  them  till  their  light  pene- 
trates the  darkness  of  the  world."  At  last  the 
agony  began,  during  which  Mann  pronounced 
only  broken  words:  "Man  —  God  —  Duty." 
Then  death  arrived,  not  calm  and  peaceful  but 
tormented,  agitated,  as  the  life  had  been.  "It 
was  hard  for  that  powerful  brain  to  die!"  At 


122  HORACE    MANN 

least  until    his    last    hour   Mann    had   preserved 
his    lucidity   of   mind   and   proclaimed   his   faith, 
remaining   to   the   end  an   apostle,   a   prophet,  - 
the    prophet    of    the    happiness   of   men  through 
virtue. 


HORACE  MANN'S  INFLUENCE  AND  THE  SPREAD 
OF  HIS  WORK 

IF  it  were  granted  to  Horace  Mann  to  live  again 
and  revisit  this  world,  he  would  doubtless  find 
some  subjects  for  disappointment  and  bitterness. 
Were  he  to  make  once  more,  fifty  years  later,  his 
European  trip,  he  would  discover  with  grief  the 
distressing  increase,  in  some  countries  at  least,  of 
the  curse  of  alcoholism.  He  would  read  with  pain, 
in  the  newspapers  of  his  own  country,  that 
"the  horrors  of  intemperance  are  the  greatest 
evil  of  American  life."  And,  above  all,  he,  the 
friend  of  peace  among  men,  the  "  pacificator, "  as 
we  say  to-day,  with  what  sorrowful  eyes  would 
he  behold  the  military  spirit  and  its  formidable 
armaments  increasing  even  in  the  United  States. 

On  the  other  hand,  what  joy  the  abolition  of 
slavery  would  cause  him.  He  died  three  years 
before  the  outbreak  of  the  civil  war  of  1861-1865. 
He  would  have  been  saddened  by  the  bloody  vio- 
lence of  that  fratricidal  strife,  but  would  have 

123 


124  HORACE   MANN 

rejoiced  over  its  results,  since  it  put  an  end  to 
the  institution  of  slavery,  which  he  held  in  such 
abhorrence.  But,  above  all,  if  he  could  contem- 
plate to-day  the  magnificent  growth  of  popular 
education  in  all  countries,  particularly  his  own, 
the  apostle  of  education  would  certainly  feel  happi- 
ness and  pride  in  the  spread  and  progress  of  his 
ideas,  while  admitting,  doubtless,  that  the  efforts 
of  his  successors  have  been  powerless  up  to  this 
time  in  abolishing  the  evil  in  the  world,  and  that 
humanity,  in  spite  of  having  grown  more  learned 
and  enlightened,  is  still  a  long  way  from  attaining 
that  ideal  of  happiness  and  virtue  of  which  he 
had  dreamed. 

For  half  a  century  the  United  States  have  faith- 
fully conformed  in  the  matter  of  public  education 
to  the  programme  which  Mann  had  traced  for  them. 
/He  had  wished  to  see  the  schoolhouses  habitable, 
comfortable,  even  architecturally  fine,  and  America 
has  clothed  herself  with  scholastic  palaces,  which 
none  of  her  children  dream  of  criticising.  He 
desired  free  schools,  with  the  schooling  obligatory ; 
and  one  no  longer  sees  in  America  those  paying 
public  schools,  which  he  called  the  "blot  on  our 
civilization."  The  poor  school  has  disappeared,  and, 
moreover,  vigorous  efforts  have  been  made  that 
obligatory  education  should  not  be  a  mere  name, 


HORACE   MANN  125 

certain  States  going  so  far  as  to  refuse  the  rights  of 
suffrage  to  the  illiterate.  He  desired  the  common 
school  to  be  universal,  frequented  by  the  children 
of  the  rich  as  well  as  of  the  destitute,  in  order  that 
aristocratic  prejudices  should  fade  away,  which 
separate  in  institutions  of  learning  the  children 
of  one  country,  and  which  too  long  forbade  the 
sons  of  well-to-do  citizens  from  sitting  on  the 
same  school  benches  with  the  sons  of  farmers  and 
workingmen.  For  any  citizen  not  to  send  his 
children  to  the  public  schools  on  the  pretext  that 
he  is  rich  and  that  these  schools  are  open  gratui- 
tously to  all,  appeared  to  Mann  to  be  treason  against 
democracy.  In  this  direction,  also,  progress  is 
apparent,  though  still  incomplete.  He  was  averse 
to  introducing  any  positive  religious  instruction 
into  the  school,  regarding  the  teaching  of  dogmas  as 
despotism  on  the  master's  part  and  servitude  on  that 
of  the  scholars.  He  almost  grasped  the  necessity 
of  an  absolutely  and  purely  lay  school;  for  while 
he  admitted  the  reading  of  the  Bible,  he  forbade 
accompanying  it  with  any  commentary.  At  the 
present  day,  although  America,  amid  its  diversity 
of  sects,  has  remained  more  faithful  to  its  ancient 
religious  faith  than  certain  European  countries, 
there  are,  nevertheless,  numbers  of  American  edu- 
cators who  would  go  farther  than  Mann,  and  who 


126  HORACE   MANN 

are  disposed  to  exclude  from  the  schools  even  the 
reading  of  the  Bible.  "If  there  are  children  who  do 
not  wish  to  read  the  Bible,"  they  say,  "the  Bible 
should  not  be  inscribed  on  the  school  programme.^ 

Mann  was  the  first  secretary  of  a  regularly  estab- 
lished board  of  education  in  the  United  States,  and 
to-day  there  does  not  exist  within  the  great  Ameri- 
can Union  a  single  State  which  does  not  possess, 
under  one  form  or  another,  a  central  authority 
established  for  the  supervision  and  direction  of 
the  public  schools.  Sometimes  it  is  a  board  of 
education  similar  to  the  Boston  one;  sometimes 
it  consists  merely  of  a  single  head,  a  superintendent ; 
in  the  Western  States  a  county  superintendent, 
in  the  East  a  city  superintendent  and,  moreover, 
with  widely  different  powers.  One  such  super- 
intendent corresponds  to  our  provincial  minister 
of  public  instruction,  another  is  merely  the  director 
of  a  bureau  of  information  and  statistics.  But 
everywhere,  taught  by  Mann's  example,  the  Ameri- 
cans have  established  an  official  authority  who 
presides  over  the  destiny  of  schools,  and  it  would 
appear  that  at  this  very  moment  a  movement 
is  started  to  extend  its  action  and  reenforce  its 
powers. 

Progress  in  school  organization,  progress  in 
administration  —  all  this,  however,  has  not  been 


HORACE  MANN  127 

accomplished  in  a  day.  The  United  States  have 
not,  like  France,  a  centralized  government,  where 
an  order  from  above,  a  national  law,  can,  from  one 
day  to  the  next,  transform  the  entire  system  of 
education  and  impose  uniform  and  universal  rules 
over  its  whole  territory.  Each  State  in  the  Union 
has  its  individual  spirit  and  character,  and  by  the 
very  reason  of  their  diversity  of  manners  and 
social  condition,  they  have  not  all  advanced  at 
an  equal  pace  along  the  path  of  progress.  Just 
as  on  a  summer  night  the  stars  shine  forth  in  the 
sky  one  after  another,  according  to  their  magnitude 
and  position  in  space,  so  the  States  of  the  American 
Union  have  set  in  motion  their  scholastic  enter- 
prises successively  and  gradually,  according  to 
their  resources  and  their  degree  of  advancement 
in  the  march  of  civilization.  It  is  the  Eastern 
States  that  have  led  the  way,  but  the  Western 
States  have  followed  with  such  rapid  strides  that 
they  no  longer  have  anything  for  which  to  envy 
their  precursors.1 

To  the  appeal  of  Mann,  of  Barnard,  and  all  their 
followers,  the  United  States  have  made  a  superb 
response.  At  the  dawn  of  the  twentieth  century, 
they  offer  to  the  admiration  of  the  world  an  en- 

1  Ohio  had  appointed  a  superintendent  in  1837,  three  months 
before  the  establishment  of  the  Boston  Board. 


128  HORACE   MANN 

semble  of  scholastic  institutions  which  no  other 
country  can  surpass.1  They  assemble  in  their 
public  schools  of  the  first  grade  more  than 
15,000,000  children,  as  many  as  the  total  population 
of  Spain.  The  teachers  in  these  institutions,  men 
and  women,  number  426,000,  and  the  annual 
expenditure  is  $212,000,000,  i.e.  over  a  billion 
francs,  as  much  as  France  expends  in  maintaining 
her  army  and  navy. 

Mann,  whatever  may  have  been  the  ardor  of 
his  hopes,  would  have  stood  amazed  before  this 
marvellous  effort.  To  speak  of  Massachusetts  alone, 
the  State  to  which  he  communicated  the  most 
vigorous  impulse,  what  a  change  and  what  progress 
in  fifty  years !  In  1848  the  budget  of  that  State  for 
common  school  education  did  not  exceed  $700,000 ; 
it  now  reaches  more  than  $11,000,000.  In 
1848  Massachusetts  possessed  but  three  normal 
schools,  those  with  which  Mann  had  endowed 
the  State;  they  number  ten  to-day.  The  school 
population  has  risen  from  185,000  children  in 
1848  to  424,000  in  1896.  And,  finally,  the  number  of 
men  and  women  teachers  has  increased  from  7924  to 
12,275  (of  whom  11,197  are  women  to  1078  men). 

1  Among  the  causes  to  which  the  United  States  owe  the  admirable 
progress  in  primary  education,  we  must  note  the  abolition  of  slavery, 
which  opened  the  way  for  public  schools  in  sixteen  new  States. 


HORACE   MANN  129 

Two  ideas  equally  dear  to  Mann's  heart,  co- 
education and  instruction  by  women,  have  become 
more  and  more  acclimated  in  the  United  States. 
In  Massachusetts,  as  we  have  shown  in  the  figures 
quoted  above,  the  proportion  is  eleven  women 
teachers  to  one  man,  and  it  is  nearly  the  same  all 
over  America.1  As  to  coeducation,  it  does  not 
cease  to  make  progress,  and  is  in  general  favor, 
not  only  in  the  public  schools,  but  even  in  colleges 
and  universities.  It  has  become  —  and  how 
Mann  would  rejoice  thereat !  —  a  characteristic 
feature  of  the  American  school  system.  Mann 
was  concerned  not  only  with  the  elementary  public 
schools,  he  was  equally  interested  in  schools  of 
the  second  degree,  such  as  are  called  in  America 
high  schools.  The  first  high  school  was  founded 
in  Boston  in  1821 ;  Mann  occupied  himself  with 
starting  others,  and  to-day,  on  the  showing  of  Mr. 
Harris,  the  eminent  director  of  the  Washington 
Board  of  Education,  the  increase  in  the  number 
of  high  schools  is  perhaps  the  most  important 
event  in  the  history  of  education  in  the  United 
States  during  the  last  years  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
This  progress  was  for  a  long  time  slow  and  im- 
perceptible. In  1860  the  whole  United  States 

1  In  certain  cities  the  proportion  in  favor  of  women  is  even  higher. 
In  Philadelphia,  in  1899,  3174  women  were  teaching  to  190  men. 


130  HORACE   MANN 

counted  but  40  schools  of  this  type,  to  more  than 
800  in  1880.  But  in  the  last  twenty  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  American  intermediate  educa- 
tion received  an  immense  impetus;  in  fact,  the 
number  of  high  schools  in  1900  was  about  6000, 
with  more  than  500,000  pupils,  boys  and  girls  - 
244  of  these  schools  being  in  Massachusetts  alone.1 
If  Mann's  influence,  after  the  lapse  of  fifty  years, 
still  pervades  the  scholastic  institutions  of  the 
United  States,  it  was  especially  during  his  life- 
time that  it  was  powerful  and  effective.  Nor 
was  it  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts  alone  that  he 
exercised  this  influence.  Before  he  had  carried 
his  scholastic  gospel  in  person  to  the  Mississippi 
Valley,  his  writings,  and  especially  his  school  re- 
ports, had  circulated  far  and  wide.  " Mann's 
reports,"  wrote  George  B.  Emerson,  in  1844,  "have 
waked  an  echo  in  the  woods  of  Maine,  on  the  banks 
of  the  St.  Lawrence,  on  the  shores  of  the  Great 
Lakes.  They  have  been  read  and  listened  to  in 
New  York,  in  the  West  and  Southwest.  The  im- 
portance they  have  acquired  is  shown  by  the  fact 

1  It  is  to  be  noticed,  moreover,  that  the  number  of  girls  in 
the  high  schools  considerably  surpasses  that  of  boys,  —  200,000 
boys  only  to  300,000  girls,  —  which  is  to  be  regretted,  since,  ac- 
cording to  the  testimony  of  its  warmest  defenders,  coeducation 
has  full  efficacy  only  in  schools  where  the  proportion  between 
the  sexes  is  about  equal. 


HORACE   MANN  131 

that  a  man  from  Massachusetts  has  been  selected 
to  organize  the  schools  of  New  Orleans.  At  this 
very  moment  his  reports  are  regenerating  the 
Rhode  Island  schools,  while  in  the  remotest  corners 
of  Ohio  forty  people  have  been  known  to  meet 
to  read  together  the  only  copy  of  the  Boston  secre- 
tary's reports  which  they  had  been  able  to  obtain." 
The  worth  of  a  great  man  is  recognized  in  this, 
— that  he  founds  a  school  and  raises  up  imitators 
and  disciples.  Mann  inspired  one  such  disciple, 
who  became  almost  his  equal,  and  shares  with 
him  the  honor  of  having  led  the  pedagogic  move- 
ment in  the  United  States  in  the  nineteenth  century. 
This  was  Henry  Barnard,  of  whom  Mann  said 
in  1850,  "If  one  wishes  to  find  a  more  capable 
man  than  he,  one  must  wait  for  the  next  genera- 
tion." Barnard  was  in  turn  school  superintendent 
of  Connecticut  from  1832  to  1842,  State  superin- 
tendent for  Rhode  Island  from  1843  to  1849,  presi- 
dent of  St.  John's  College  from  1858  to  1867,  and, 
finally,  commissioner  of  the  Board  of  Education  in 
Washington  from  1867  to  1870.  His  career  offers  many 
analogies  with  that  of  Mann :  if  the  latter  was  promi- 
nent in  the  reform  of  asylums  for  the  insane,  Bar- 
nard labored  equally  for  prison  reform  and  for  the 
reorganization  of  institutions  for  the  blind  and  deaf 
and  dumb.  The  great  American  educators  have 


132  HORACE  MANN 

always  extended  their  solicitude  to  the  infirm,  the 
abnormal,  —  to  those  disinherited  by  nature. 

Barnard  published  for  forty  years  the  American 
Journal  of  Education,  a  real  encyclopaedia  of  pedagogy 
from  the  historical,  as  well  as  the  doctrinal,  point 
of  view.  He  had  but  one  claim  to  superiority 
over  Mann,  —  that  of  a  longer  life,  since  born  in 
1811,  he  died,  full  of  years,  in  1901. 

Mann's  countrymen  have  not  forgotten  what  they 
owe  him.  They  have  raised  statues  to  him,  and  in 
1897  they  celebrated  the  anniversary  of  his  birth ;  but 
what  is  better  still  is  that  they  remain  faithful  to  his 
inspiration,  and  he  may  be  said  to  be  still  present  in 
their  midst.  It  may  be  said  also  that  his  spirit  has 
penetrated  into  Europe  and  particularly  into  France. 
It  will  not  be  detracting  from  the  honor  due  to  the 
organizers  of  elementary  instruction  in  France  under 
the  Third  Republic  to  say  that  they  were  in  great 
measure  inspired  by  the  thought  and  example 
of  the  great  American  educator.  To  mention  but 
one,  our  Pecaut,  above  all,  appears  to  us  as  a  French 
Horace  Mann,  more  impressive,  of  a  deeper  and 
more  intense  inner  life,  more  reserved  and  discreet ;  a 
Horace  Mann  without  the  gift  of  oratory,  but  with 
greater  moderation  and  delicacy  of  mental  quality, 
worthy  in  any  case  to  figure,  like  him,  in  the  front 
rank  in  the  golden  book  of  great  modem  educators. 


BIBLIOGKAPHY 

THERE  can  be  no  question  here  of  giving  a  complete  bibli- 
ography of  Mann's  works,  nor  especially  of  the  five  or  six  hun- 
dred books  and  pamphlets  published  about  him.  Let  us 
cite  merely  the  principal  editions  of  his  writings  and  the  most 
important  of  the  studies  which  have  appeared  regarding  his 
work.  /"" 

HORACE  MANN,  Reports  as  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Educa- 
'tion  of  Massachusetts,  12  vols.  Boston,  1838-1849. 

The  same,  abridged  and  edited  by  GEORGE  COMBE  MANN, 
4  vols.  Boston,  1891. 

HORACE  MANN,  Lectures  on  Education,  1  vol.  Boston, 
1845. 

MARY  MANN,  Life  of  Horace  Mann,  by  his  Wife,  1st  edition. 
Boston,  1865. 

MARY  MANN,  Life  and  Works  of  Horace  Mann,  5  vols.  Cam- 
bridge, 1867. 

In  the  Reports  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  published 
in  Washington,  will  be  found  a  series  of  studies  upon  Horace 
Mann.  We  will  point  out  two  particularly  important  ones. 

Horace  Mann,  by  Mr.  W.  T.  HARRIS;  notice  followed  by 
a  bibliography  made  out  by  one  of  Mann's  sons,  Mr.  B. 
Pickman  Mann,  and  which,  although  incomplete,  comprises 
no  less  than  600  different  publications  (Reports,  etc.,  1895- 
1896,  pp.  886-927). 

Horace  Mann  and  the  Great  Revival  of  the  American  Common 
School,  by  A.  D.  MAYO.  (Reports,  etc.,  1896-1897,  pp.  715-767). 

BARNARD,  Horace  Mann.    Hartford,  1858. 

133 


134  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

HINSDALE,  Horace  Mann  and  Public  Education  in  the  United 
States,  in  the  collection  The  Great  Educators.  New  York,  1898. 

French   works :  — 

LABOULAYE,  Lecture  on  the  Importance  of  Education  in 
a  Republic.  Paris,  1873. 

GAUFRES,  Horace  Mann,  his  Work,  his  Writings,  1  vol.  Paris, 
Hachette,  2d  edition,  1897. 

FELIX  PECAUT,  article  in  the  Revue  pedagogique,  1888,  vol.  1. 


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